Catlin Bender Source 3

Follow Up: How do piloting military drones effect the pilot?
Reardon, Sara. "I Spy, With My Faraway Eye." New Scientist 217.2901 (2013): 46-49. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.

This article was in favor of military drone usage. The author stated that studies of symptoms of PTSD was considerably lower in drone pilots vs those whom have been in combat. They also address the issue of "video game mentality". With this address, they shoot down any flack received by saying pilots do not feel subjected to being desensitized of their job. But rather, they feel thrown into the combat through their headsets by hearing their brothers in the midst of the action. Though, they may not see their actual target, they do realize the severity of the action they are doing. Many of the pilots do not question whom their target ma be, because their orders are directed by politicians saying who is a target and who is not. There has been talk on if the target is unknowingly targeted, is it legal to "snipe" these people.

I feel that article helped me wrap my head around what the pilots think about and go trough for their jobs. That they understand that they may be killing people that are innocents and they have to live with following through on their orders to strike. That these pilots also look at screens and not are in actual harm, but mentally they are with their brothers that they are guarding and protecting from above. Mentally, this job sounds stressful enough, so the tough of PTSD is still prevalent but not as high as those in combat is understandable. This article still brought up a concerning issue for me. The number of targets and innocents who have been killed. The number is still and estimation, not a real concise and tangible number. To me this is unfortunate and concerning because if no one knows how many lives are lost, what has the world come to of just taking lives at whim?

This source has some conflicting views compared to my others. This source is clearly pro drone and briefly brushes over the bad of the strikes. They go on and on about how they are good but state how the bad of killing innocents is natural. I feel that the mentality of the pilots is the same that I have read before. Saying that the pilots have no concerning issues of being separated from the combat rather than just staying at base in front of a screen. It is obvious by legislative standing that drones are the future of war. So much money has been handed over for research and usage and building these machines.

i do not know where I will go next. I think I will focus on usage and the number of pilots that are trained to fly drones rather than being in a jet. To shoe the future of war through the use of these flying beasts. Maybe dive into more of the legality of their usage of not declaring war on a country but just surveying the scope of the land for possible but not tangible issues.