Film Research on Military UAV Operators

[Unmanned]

Dear UAV operators,

I am a graduate film student at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, CA, doing research for my upcoming short movie, UNMANNED, about an Air Force UAV operator (pilot or sensor operator) based on the West Coast and operating daily missions over the Middle East. The fictional film will focus on one character, a young guy (22) raised on video games, trained through the BETA fast track training programs, and married with a baby son. The film will look at the challenge of being at war by remote and balancing his work with his family life.

I am currently doing research for the script, gathering insight and personal experiences of real life UAV operators, especially those working remotely in the military. I am working to get on base to meet and interview pilots, but it's a very difficult and lengthy process. So, I would like to reach out to any military UAV operators here who might be willing to answer some of my questions and share any experiences or thoughts. All information gathered here will be anonymous and voluntary. I cannot pay for anybody's stories or answers, and will not be basing my script on anybody's personal lives. This is purely for me to understand the life of the UAV operator more clearly, and to present my story more accurately.

Here are the initial questions that I am interested in asking. Below is a more complete synopsis of the film. Thanks for your interest and insight.

QUESTIONS:
1. What compelled you to become a UAV operator? What is your specific job in the crew? What are your main tasks?
2. Have you ever served in combat overseas? How does this affect your experience of combat?
3. Were or are you a video gamer? What games? If so, how has that helped you in your job as a UAV pilot? Has it hindered your perception of war in any way?
4. What is the best part about your job?
5. What is the most challenging part of your job?
6. How do you balance the daily work of combat with your family and civilian life?
7. Would you recommend this type of service to today’s youth? Why?
8. Some articles and news programs cite a new kind of PTSD experienced among UAV operators. How prevalent is this really? If someone is not inside the traumas of combat, how could they start to experience "battle stress" from remote operations?

Thanks again for any of your thoughts on these questions. Please feel free to contact me, even if you want to talk about other aspects of remote control operations that I have not touched on. I will continue to keep you updated about the progress of UNMANNED, the film. Below is a synopsis.

All the best,
Casey Johnson
Writer/Director

UNMANNED SYNOPSIS
Rick Clayfield is a young drone pilot, stationed at a remote Air Force base in Nevada. Having grown up in the video game generation, Rick is computer savvy and technically cut out for the complex and rigorous task of piloting an airplane that is 7,500 miles away, flying surveillance and airstrike missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is young, bright and committed, representing the new face of remote control warfare.

But Rick’s daily commute back to his wife, baby son, and suburban life in America poses challenges that Rick had not foreseen. Unable to separate the growing weight and reality of his combat work on the base with his duties as a husband and father, Rick must learn to overcome a whole new type of “battle stress”.

UNMANNED is an exploration into the unusual and specialized world of remote combat and the new breed of drone pilots who dominate the skies from below. Revealing both their pride in saving American lives on the frontlines and their struggles to find humanity on their digital battlefield and normalcy in their daily lives, this film will do for drone pilots what THE HURT LOCKER did for the Army’s EOD teams and THE MESSENGER for the Casualty Notification teams. UNMANNED reminds us that even in remote controlled combat, war is a very human experience.

 

[challenger]

Aroooo??? opcorn:

 

[ian]

sent this to a predator guy i know....don't know if he will reply though

 

[///AMG]

I would say that as of today, there aren't a whole lot of guys who went to UAV's by choice. Probably a few, but from what I have seen, the "gamers" haven't really been enticed too much thus far by it. Most UAV drivers are pulled after T-38 training following winging, and then make the transition to flying a computer. Not saying that your film couldn't be interesting, but the idea of a computer junkie coming off the streets and joining up to fly UAV's is not really reality thus far.

 

[ian]

I would say that as of today, there aren't a whole lot of guys who went to UAV's by choice. Probably a few, but from what I have seen, the "gamers" haven't really been enticed too much thus far by it. Most UAV drivers are pulled after T-38 training following winging, and then make the transition to flying a computer. Not saying that your film couldn't be interesting, but the idea of a computer junkie coming off the streets and joining up to fly UAV's is not really reality thus far.

I'm going to have to disagree. Most of the Predator guys out of columbus came from the T-1 and not the T-38.

And the one of the 4 people in my class that got a predator wanted one, granted he was a guard guy. We had 4 predators in our class, 3 from the T-1, 1 from the T-38

 

[MikeD]

I'm going to have to disagree. Most of the Predator guys out of columbus came from the T-1 and not the T-38.

And the one of the 4 people in my class that got a predator wanted one, granted he was a guard guy. We had 4 predators in our class, 3 from the T-1, 1 from the T-38

The concept is the same though, regardless of where they came from initially.

Preds was darn uninteresting when I did it. Some occasional moments of interest, but that was less than 2% of the total time I was there.

 

[aloft]

You went NORDO for what, 2 years, over a Pred assignment?? Talk about misplaced priorities....

 

[MikeD]

You went NORDO for what, 2 years, over a Pred assignment?? Talk about misplaced priorities....

Nope, I was that when I was assigned to some northern Vegas work, not Pred related.

 

[Low_Level_Hell]

OP,

You should direct your creative efforts to Firebirds 2. Or maybe even a remake. I'll be happy to provide any technical advice and maybe even make a cameo. The public wants this.

 

[Minuteman]

 

[Low&Slow]

I was considering becoming a UAV Operator for the Army last year before I ETS'd. I have corrected vision and am outside the max age for manned-aircraft, so I was looking into it as an option for flying in the military.
I'm not a gamer by any means. I might have played a total of ten hours on my son's XBox 360 over the last two years.

 

[Mike Lewis]

But Rick’s daily commute back to his wife, baby son, and suburban life in America poses challenges that Rick had not foreseen. Unable to separate the growing weight and reality of his combat work on the base with his duties as a husband and father, Rick must learn to overcome a whole new type of “battle stress”.

While not dealing with unmanned operations, I remember reading about how different the Kosovo operations were from previous battles for B-2 stealth bomber crews.

The B-2s that participated in Kosovo flew from Whiteman AFB, MO to Kosovo and back on 30-hour missions. What was unusual was that the crews would take off, bomb targets in Serbia, and return home. A day after bombing enemy targets they could be at their kid's baseball game. There were a number of support personnel awarded Bronze Stars for their support of B-2 operations, which caused some controversy, because they never deployed to the combat zone.

I remember reading some articles from 1999/2000 about the B-2 crews and how they were adjusting to flying combat missions while being home with their families. I couldn't find them on Google, but I know it doesn't always find archived articles from newspapers, so you might want to research some of the periodicals from that time (New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, and/or maybe the KC Star). I don't remember which paper it was in, but it was one of the major papers (I'm including the KC Star, because it is the biggest paper closest to the B-2 base).

It might help with that part of your story.

 

[Unmanned]

Hey Guys,

Thank you all for your posts and replies. Mike, interesting you bring up the Kosovo campaign. I actually went there in 1999 with a humanitarian relief group, and ended up staying for 10 years, where I married, started filmmaking, everything. Just back for one year now to go back to film school. Interesting, I'd read that Kosovo was the first time the Military really utilized the predator drones for surveillance.

I've gotten quite a bit of insight and info from several TV stories and features, such as this one on CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/07/23/wus.warfare.remote.uav/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

I've tried also to get permission to visit some AF bases out here on the West Coast, but they are currently not able to have me on base, so that's why I'll need to piece the story together by bits and pieces.

Thanks again,

Casey

 

[matthew]

end of thread
lol

 

[exerauflyboy5]

What about the non military types that go over seas. The ones that dont operate out of a nice command complex somewhere in the states?

 

[///AMG]

What about the non military types that go over seas. The ones that dont operate out of a nice command complex somewhere in the states?

I met one a couple months back, though as I understood it, he too flew from the US. Said he basically did all the admin portions of the flight, and then turned controls over to an AF type once things got "tactical". Had been an ERAU grad actually (hell maybe it's you ), friends with a former ERAU dude turned Lemoore Rhino pilot I went to flight school with

 

[Low&Slow]

What about the non military types that go over seas. The ones that dont operate out of a nice command complex somewhere in the states?

The Army's UAV pilots live in theatre 24/7 and operate out of the back of Humvees. Some even ruck their UAV into a remote area and launch it by hand from there.

 

[z987k]

I have no experience in the matter, but I know flight sim is a terrible analogue for flying... I would imagine video games are for UAV's as well. I remember reading in another thread on the topic that the operators with flight experience were far better than those with none and that was a possible reason the AF wasn't going to give uav's their own career or whatever.

 

[Hacker15e]

I've tried also to get permission to visit some AF bases out here on the West Coast, but they are currently not able to have me on base, so that's why I'll need to piece the story together by bits and pieces.

Have you filed a PA request with SAF/PA? It sounds from the way you're talking that you haven't tried the "official" route yet.

WRT to the treatment of your story, it seems like an interesting topic -- certainly one that bears some looking into. I have several previous squadronmates who have been affected by similar combat stresses from killing bad people remotely at work, and then going home to watch their kids' soccer games afterward.

I'm curious why you have chosen to make a young first-timer the focus of the story? I find it very compelling that the people I know -- people who I flew real no-kidding combat sorties over Iraq with (in the opening shots of the war, when they were actually shooting back at airplanes) and experienced the actual stresses of combat -- were assigned to the Predator/Reaper and have experienced this unique form of combat stress from going to war "remotely". I would think that such a story would be far more interesting than that of a cliche'd video gamer kid who hasn't actually seen or done anything related to combat feeling the same stresses.

Most UAV drivers are pulled after T-38 training following winging,

Nope. "Most" come from operational flying units. Some of them are assigned out of initial flying training, but that is the minority. Even fewer of them have come from the "Beta" method.

 

[///AMG]

Nope. "Most" come from operational flying units. Some of them are assigned out of initial flying training, but that is the minority. Even fewer of them have come from the "Beta" method.

Then I stand corrected.