BEagle said:
PTSD for drone operators surely means "Pass the sodding doughnuts!"...
Because we won GW1 with so few casualties (and MoD refused to accept 'Gulf War Syndrome'), no-one seems to have given much concern to how those who faced nightly Scud attacks and were ordered to take experimental anti-anthrax drugs, NAPs etc felt after getting back to 'normal' work....where the PONTIs had been safely polishing the chairs for 6 months.
A colleague who'd been shot down in the South Atlantic had similar problems and was marched off to the funny farm until his wonderful wife went down and kicked ar$e at Wroughton.....
Although a generous MoD did tell us "You aren't allowed to wear the medals you were awarded by the King of Saudi Arabia and the Emir of Kuwait".... Thanks, chaps....
PTSD after sitting in a tin box at Waddo? YGBSM!!
As usual, BEagle can't waste an opportunity to display his prejudices against "drones" and "drone operators." It's interesting that in his mind, PTSD can be suffered by "those who faced nightly Scud attacks," those who "took experimental drugs," somebody who'd been "shot down in the South Atlantic" (although he was a "colleague" so presumably worthy in BEagle's mind of suffering PTSD) and even those who "aren't allowed to wear their medals." Now, as just an (ex) "drone operator" myself, and not a member of any of the above groups, I can't comment on whether or not the people above will develop PTSD. I've seen enough to know it's possible though.
What I can say categorically is that PTSD is an ever-present risk to those who observe the sort of operations carried out by RPAS crews (including the Int person in the back of the cabin). It's not always the obviously difficult sights that they see that necessarily provides the trigger - as others have said, it can be a very simple, innocuous thing. I won't go into detail for obvious reasons, but I'm aware of a person who operated Reaper who was quite disturbed by the sight of a potential target enjoying lunch and a bit of family down time with his young daughters - an activity we watched at length, and in some detail. This clearly resonated with my colleague, a man who had a family of similar composition. When we 'applied force' some time later it had an effect on him which I'm almost certain will come back to haunt him in future. As others on here have alluded to, the combination of shift patterns and the desire to return to the family at the end of a shift removes the traditional military "apply beer and sort out your problems" approach to getting these things straight in your mind before they have a chance to take root. Of course, I could be wrong - I'm not a psychologist and BEagle says that "drone operators" can't get PTSD.
I don't want to get into the argument, if there is one, about manned vs unmanned and who is most at risk of PTSD. However, I know from experience that PTSD can be a serious problem for those associated with RPAS. It's not well understood, but thankfully there are decent people out there, like OC 13 (who, by the way, has both manned and unmanned experience in Afghanistan Ops), doing their level best to make people sit up and take notice of one aspect of a problem which frankly should concern all of us.
Finally, a colleague of mine prematurely retired from RPAS ops due to the stress it caused him. He was a member of Taxy Dual's "ARMED FORCES" who had years of Hangarshuffle's "grading" gained during previous fast jet ops. The way he was treated by some of our mutual "colleagues," openly voicing their disbelief of his problem, made me ashamed to be associated with them. For Taxy Dual's benefit, he was selected and trained to be a member of the ARMED FORCES and for many years he carried out his duties as a member of the ARMED FORCES (including applying lethal force when required), but in the end it got to him. He asked to be, and was, moved on, but not before some took the opportunity to openly express their arrogant disregard for his mental condition. If any of you feel the same way as some of his so-called colleagues, and some of those on this forum, then you are all a little less of a person than he is.