Pioneer pilots: UAV officer career track creates new breed of fighter jocks

摘要

When an F-16 pilot points admiringly at an MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle and says he'd rather fly that, you know the times they are achangin'. Deep in the Nevada desert, an aerospace revolution is happening. Creech Air Force Base doesn't look like any other U.S. Air Force base. Its remote location with minimal services in the nearby town of Indian Springs, population 2,000, means that most airmen assigned to Creech opt to live an hour's dusty drive away in Las Vegas or at the huge Nellis Air Force Base. Creech has a very modem, still-under-construction appearance with new roads and roundabouts appearing daily, and spanking-clean facility buildings and hangars. And then there's what's peeking out of those hangars: more than 100 futuristic-looking Predator and MQ-9 Reaper UAVs, each looking like half insect, half Star Wars prop. But while Creech may look remote and other-worldly, its airmen and UAVs fight every day in the war zones of Iraq, Afghanistan and the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. And it's that ability to be in the fight that makes the Predator and Reaper an appealing career track, even for traditional fighter pilots.