Overstreched U.S. drone pilots face stress risk...seriously?

Okay, so I'm in the military so I understand that people get Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from things that they see and experience while deployed overseas. I know people personally that have dealt with or are dealing with it now. But when a co-worker of mine told me that he saw on the news that U.S. Air Force "pilots" of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are experiencing PTSD, I was literally speachless. Naturally I had to research this for myself for it was completely unbelievable to me. (I will attempt to keep the swearing to a minimum during this rant, but this pisses me off, so bear with me).

What I found was a story in Reuters entitled with the same title that I used for this post (minus the seriously). Let's go over a little background on this subject for those of you who aren't really familiar with these things. UAVs are drone aircraft (meaning they don't have people in them) that we use to fly around and look at stuff and take pictures (in a nutshell). Sometimes they also have weapons on them. The so-called "pilots" of these vehicles are typically overweight Air Force nerds who sit in a dark room with a remote control and fly the drones where they need to go. Sometimes they don't even have to deploy overseas to do it. Okay, so they play an important role, I'll give them that much. However, I don't call the 8 year old that lives on my street a pilot because he has a remote control airplane...and he goes inside afterwards and slays people on online on Call of Duty. I wouldn't go as far as calling him a SPEC OPS soldier either, but I digress. The only difference between the eight year old and these UAV monkeys is about 28 years of age, 30 pounds of fat, and a wicked case of acne.

Newsflash Jumbo: you're not a pilot! A pilot is a dude with a pair of aviator sunglasses and a sweet mustache that can pull a 4g turn at 12,000 ft. while snorting coke and getting a bj, all on 2 1/2 hours of sleep. Not some sniveling little college dropout who's closest thing to female companionship falls somewhere between his mom that he still lives with and the underwear model in the JC Penney catalogue. So we'll call them UAV operators from here on.

The report noted that 17% of UAV operators experience "clinical distress" while 28% of soldiers returning from Iraq experience it. Are you kidding me?! So let me get this straight...per average, there are only 11% percent more combat soldiers (guys who storm into decrepit villages mowing down terrorists, winning hearts and minds of locals, who sometimes have to watch their buddies die in front of them and probably get shot themselves) who experience "clinical distress" than these tubs of shit that play with remote control planes for a living?! Your stress level should be ZERO you jack wagons!

"The bulk of what drone crews do is surveillance, monitoring suspects or compounds. But they also sometimes take out targets. That means pressing a button that can lead to someone's death half a world away, then ending your shift to meet family at, say, a child's soccer practice. The transition can be difficult for soldiers at places like Creech Air Force Base in Nevada." (Reuters)

That's a direct quote from the article. Hmm. Sounds pretty cut and dry to me. Let's see, on the one hand I've got this Army Ranger who, after being sprayed with his best friend's blood, shoot's a terrosist in the face from 3 feet away and watches his head explode. Yeah, I can see where stress might be associated with that. Then on the other hand, I've got Fat's McGee, sitting in his roll away chair in a nice air conditioned room choking down Cheezy Poofs and Twinkies. He pushes a button which fires a missile on some unsuspecting bad guys on the other side of the planet. He then turns off his little system, goes home, parks his fat ass in his Lazy Boy, and proceeds to watch his favorite reality TV shows and play World of Warcraft all night. Yeah, real stressful. Granted it's great work he's doing and I'm nothing if not greatful that he's doing it. But don't try and feed me this BS that you're stressed that you may have killed someone today. First of all, you didn't kill anyone. Your drone fired a missile that did. And if you want to get really technical, you got orders from some general who is overall responsible for your entire mission. Even if you feel responible because you pushed the button, you're literally thousands of miles away and watching it on a friggin video monitor. It's basically a video game for you. Do you get all teary eyed when the aliens die on Halo? I didn't think so.

You guys need to realize something. We live in the greatest country in the world and because of this people everywhere hate our guts and want to do us harm...that and because we support Israel. By operating an unmanned drone and blowing these assholes to pieces from afar, you're not only keeping Americans safe, but you're helping out some REAL pilot so that he doesn't have to actually put himself in harms way. You are patriots and I salute you, but man up and don't tell me that you're stressed. You've got the world's easiest job. Live with it and love it.