Amusingly, you can win a medal for valor if you drop a 500 lbs. bomb from a F-16, but you get a thank you note for manning a successful drone mission. The Air Force doesn’t consider piloting a drone to involve combat and so it doesn’t involve courage. But I have to wonder how much courage it takes to fly a F-16 when there is no opposing Air Force and no anti-aircraft artillery. There is something to be said for performing a mission successfully and getting credit for it. But aside from the physical danger inherent in being a fighter pilot (whether in training or on an actual mission), I don’t see much distinction between the F-16 and the drone pilots.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Maybe it’s the difference between this;
http://coltmonday.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/topgun2.jpg
and this;
http://www.mid.muohio.edu/computer/images/geek2.jpg
It’s the image the Air Force wants.
nalbar
We have a friend who is a former Marine pilot, and now a commercial airline pilot. His favorite movie is Top Gun, which I had never seen before I met him. To be honest, I thought it was a crappy movie – the plot didn’t make much sense as they sort of had to invent some sort of enemy to fight that had no historical context whatsoever.
Ultimately militarism is a political force that the Republicans keep trying to tap. There is a subset of conservatives for whom it is very important that the U.S. remain a superpower and be more feared than respected. At this point I don’t know why it is so important to these people that this be the case.
“At this point I don’t know why it is so important to these people that this be the case.”
Little penis’s?
nalbar
You won’t get the medal if there is no opposition.
but what opposition did the F-16 pilot who killed Zarqawi face?
i think you’ve answered your own question in the post, frankly. “aside from the physical danger inherent in being a fighter pilot”… well that’s the key i think.
the physical danger one faces in order to achieve an objective for one’s country is a key component of what we define “valor” to be, in my opinion. things like courage, bravery, and valor are always defined against their negative; fear, cowardice, etc. the threat of physical danger is a precursor for valor, as popularly and professionally defined.
even if a pilot has a sophisticated air craft with no air-to-air opposition, there are still many scenarios that could end with a pilot having a real bad day. there’s an outside chance of shoot-down, small but very real, from some leftover AA gun or stinger. if a pilot is lucky enough to survive that, they’ll have captivity and god-knows-what-else to look forward to. (it is at that point that they might wish our country had adhered more scrupulously to various international agreements about the treatment of prisoners.)
also, things fail on aircraft. most of our craft are pretty damn old at this point. a mechanical failure over hostile parts of iraq/afghanistan/pakistan leads right back to that icky capture scenario.
the ptsd point is an interesting one, however. i just wonder how much of that shock is rooted in the direct physical threat aspect of things.
There is some physical danger to being a drone pilot. They might get carpal tunnel. Or maybe hemorrhoids.
You’re quite correct about just blind luck potentially affecting the outcome of a sortie. While it’s fiction, the story told in “The Bridges at Toko-Ri” by James Michener shows what can happen against even the most primitive ground defense. All it takes is one round puncturing a fuel tank or taking out a turbine blade and the mission heads south very quickly. The American pilot might have the odds in their favor, but if one rolls the dice often enough even snake-eyes will come up. The drone commander doesn’t face such threats, notwithstanding the skill they must demonstrate.
The elements and gravity are always enemies of pilots. I’m with the Army on this one – it’s not the same thing at all.
Either way you’re susceptible to ptsd.
Not nearly as susceptible as your victims are. Whole generations of Iraqis and Afghans are growing up with PTSD themselves as well as parents and aunts and uncles, and teachers with it and have hardly known any other state of being. And much of that is thanks to those heroic pilots who have the courage to drop bombs on them from the sky.
“Not nearly as susceptible as your victims are.”
Ain’t it the truth.
Imagine what it’s like when a few B-52’s come over and drop their payload on your town.
nalbar
I don’t have to imagine it, and I have exactly zero sympathy for the pilots or the crews, nor do I consider them even remotely courageous. What kind of courage does it take to kill indiscriminately from thousands of feet in the air?
in the eyes of those who hand out such things, is based on the fact that it costs northward of $1m to train a fighter pilot…not to mention the cost of the aircraft and accouterments…and drone jockeys are basically playing video games on an xbox.
gotta keep that M/I gravy train running.
This probably should be in an open thread but it is a casual observation. From the FT:
American presidents with the greatest record of bipartisan legislative achievement, notably Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, got their way by intimidating opponents, not by splitting the difference. As Machiavelli famously observed, it is better for a prince to be feared than loved.For all his intelligence, nobody fears Mr Obama.
I’m sorry but that guy is an a-hole. Suggesting Obama abandon health care to focus on “jobs”? Anybody who advocates turning away from health care at this point is easy for me to tune out.
The point remains though, what does anyone have to fear from opposing Obama?
When they give out medals of freedom to those who helped thrash, slash, bomb, burn, torture, kill, maim, disfigure, & displace the people of Iraq, numbering into the millions, what`s a little medal of valor, or an “Atta boy”, to F-16 pilots or “Drone gamers” respectively.
When I see the generals with their chests stiff with little colorful mementos of past campaigns, I only see the blood they caused to be spilled.
It`s simply a primitive ritual carried forward by opportunists of war, & the profits war generates.
It`s also the brass ring the young soldier reaches for on the merry-go round of endless war.
As it has been, since the first awarded feather or skin.
Yes We Cain, & are Abel.
Well said.
“But aside from the physical danger inherent in being a fighter pilot (whether in training or on an actual mission), I don’t see much distinction…”
Confirmed: If you just ignore all the differences, you don’t see all the differences.
(facepalm)
a good but overly kindly worded comment.
I am sorry but that was just a stupid main post. Fighter pilot is one of the most dangerous jobs around and it is very possible to have a mechanical failure over enemy territory
To the person & his family being annihilated by a bomb, remote from 10,000 feet or 8,000 miles, there really is no difference.
If you ignore the reality, there is no reality, only ignorance.