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28 Jan 12 - 09:04 PM (#3298207) Subject: UAV Pilot Song From: Greg B Since the start of World War I, pilots of attack aircraft have put themselves in harm's way along with their aircraft. That is very quickly changing. More and more, while the aircraft attacks the target, the pilot sits safely in a comfy chair state-side. Both the enemy and international human rights organizations have cried "foul." I find myself somewhere in the middle, following the treachery of 9/11, where hundreds of non-combatants were murdered by the hijackers. In any case, I think there needs to be a song, about the "fighter pilot" who never puts his body in harm's way, only a remote killing machine. It has to express the essential contradiction between sending this killing machine against evil, with no mother's son on the side of right at risk and the impersonal and certain destruction of other mother's sons (and mothers). (Full disclosure: I'm an airplane pilot and a damned good one, and if I were of a sufficiently youthful age, I'd be in one of those remote seats, following orders and flying missions. Indeed, I think that before too long the Air Force will perhaps be looking for us old stick-and-rudder guys to do what has to be done.) But then there's this whole killing by remote-control thing to deal with. There's got to be a song in it. |
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29 Jan 12 - 10:46 AM (#3298460) Subject: RE: UAV Pilot Song From: EBarnacle The Europeans originally considered archers to be cowards because they did not directly confront the enemy. |
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29 Jan 12 - 11:38 AM (#3298482) Subject: RE: UAV Pilot Song From: Charley Noble Greg- Interesting idea. We really need a news report to get this one started. Where there are blunders, it's easier to come up with a song. Where it's a terrorist mastermind being tracked and executed, the revenge theme might come into play. There're all the technical terms that need to be embedded in the song. I always like the term "remote sensing" to describe what's being done. What other terms are there? Charley Noble |
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29 Jan 12 - 02:14 PM (#3298573) Subject: RE: UAV Pilot Song From: Charmion "Overwatch" is a fave where I work, Charlie. Also ISTAR, an acronym for "intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance". |
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29 Jan 12 - 02:44 PM (#3298580) Subject: RE: UAV Pilot Song From: JohnInKansas Note that "UAV" can have lots of different nuances. At the first "UAV project" I was assigned to work on the first couple of details I was tasked was to "add a personnel oxygen system and install combat style seat belts." Later I was instructed to move the ashtray. (It was a remotely piloted vehicle.) John |
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29 Jan 12 - 03:09 PM (#3298587) Subject: RE: UAV Pilot Song From: GUEST,SteveG There's got to be a good comic song in that last statement. |
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29 Jan 12 - 03:21 PM (#3298596) Subject: RE: UAV Pilot Song From: Paul Burke Any song ought to recognise that the problem is the killing, not who does it. The only difference between an airforce pilot and a suicide bomber is that the man in uniform can go home to his wife and kids- discuss. |
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29 Jan 12 - 03:41 PM (#3298603) Subject: RE: UAV Pilot Song From: Charley Noble I suppose one could develop the plot of the "loose cannon" or the UAV that "never returned." Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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29 Jan 12 - 06:25 PM (#3298699) Subject: RE: UAV Pilot Song From: Commander Crabbe In the navy with AWACS cover you can do a bit of "over the horizon targetting". Though it's more relevant to missiles than big guns these days. CC |