Daddy? How was your day at work?
"Daddy? How was your day at work?"
"Productive! This morning I flew over Afghanistan and killed a few suspected terrorists in this tiny village in the southwest of the country and then, in the afternoon, flew over Iraq and took some surveillance video of a suspected resistance hang out. Oh ya, I almost forgot! I had lunch with your soccer coach at that little restaurant at the corner of Main Street and Jackson Avenue. You know the one I mean? She says you are doing amazing this year! Hey, want to watch American Idol with me tonight, after you have done your homework?"
Last night I watched a thought provoking documentary on PBS's Frontline - "Digital Nation". It has sparked many ideeahs for me. This is the first.
Can you imagine having to give the answer above to the oft asked question during your family dinner? (assuming you still all eat together) Well this is the reality for some families living in the United States. I knew that the army had remote controlled drones flying around the world. I knew that these were unmanned machines that had to be controlled by pilots at another location. What I thought I knew was that these pilots were sitting on some American base in Afghanistan or Iraq. I also though they were pilots. Nope.
It turns out that the US forces are now recruiting people with no flying experience to control these drones. I guess this makes sense as there is no need to actually know how to fly an airplane when you are controlling a drone. Ask any child that has a remote control airplane of a copy of Microsoft's Flight Simulator. The documentary showed seemingly out of shape people in civilian clothes doing push ups. Not the Tom Cruise-like Top Gunners. It left the viewer with the impression that the training for these "pilots" is not nearly as rigorous as the training for "real" pilots. Those real F-16 pilots had better know how to avoid missiles, how to eject into a jungle, desert, or ocean and survive for a few hours or days awaiting rescue. They need to know how to behave when taken prisoner and questioned, or worse, for information. They had also better enjoy eating the powdered food that is in their emergency ration kit.
The eye-opener for me was that these "pilots" are not deployed to a foreign land. Nope. They are deployed to a secure room on a base in the United States, a few minute drive from their homes. They can have a tuna salad sandwich made by their lovely wife for lunch. They do however dress in army uniforms - to have the feel of the fight, to be in the mood. They are told in their training to imagine that they are in Afghanistan, Iraq or some other location. Their view of the foreign land is limited to the video screen that is capturing images of the terrain in that faraway place.
I wonder what this does to one's emotions. Of course all I can do is wonder as I have no experience in the army and combat. But I can't help but wonder. When deployed to a war zone I imagine that men and women have a certain level of constant stress. They can be attacked, they need to avoid death, they see, smell and sometimes even touch the enemy. They might see the blood, the destruction. They are surrounded by peers that have lived through similar moments. Informal support groups might form, and conversations had, to help them deal with the day's events. These probably take place in the mess tents and bunkers. There is a constancy to it all.
Now flip to these US-based "pilots". One minute they are flying a combat mission the next they are having dinner with their children, shopping for groceries or planning a trip to Disneyland. What happens to their emotions? Are they as effective as a soldier, parent, spouse and friend? Can they make the switch? With such a drastic change of scenery, a lack of constancy, can they cope with all of this? Does the stress they feel at work dissipate once home? Does the calm they feel at home get replaced by stress at work?
Maybe it is no different than being a first-responder, policeman or fireman. Maybe. No different than an emergency room nurse or doctor. Maybe no different than any white-collar cubicle job even. But I can't imagine having to answer that question at dinner.
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