{"id":18561,"date":"2013-07-05T12:39:07","date_gmt":"2013-07-05T16:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=18561"},"modified":"2026-04-22T09:21:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:21:19","slug":"i-watch-him-bleed-out-drone-operator-who-helped-kill-1626-targets-reveals-trauma-of-watching-them-die-on-a-computer-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2013\/07\/i-watch-him-bleed-out-drone-operator-who-helped-kill-1626-targets-reveals-trauma-of-watching-them-die-on-a-computer-screen\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Lo vi desangrarse\u2019: El operador de drones que ayud\u00f3 a matar a 1.626 objetivos revela el trauma de verlos morir en la pantalla de un ordenador."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_18562\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18562\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/article-2336905-1a2ea384000005dc-140_634x423.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18562\" alt=\"Difficult job: Brandon Bryant, 27, served as a drone operator from 2006 to 2011 at bases in Nevada, New Mexico and Iraq Read more: http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-2336905\/Ex-drone-operator-says-hes-haunted-carnage-caused-cover-screen.html#ixzz2YuO4KiT6  Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/article-2336905-1a2ea384000005dc-140_634x423.jpg?resize=490%2C326\" width=\"490\" height=\"326\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18562\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Difficult job: Brandon Bryant, 27, served as a drone operator from 2006 to 2011 at bases in Nevada, New Mexico and Iraq<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>Brandon Bryant, 27, served as a drone operator from 2006 to 2011 at bases in Nevada, New Mexico and Iraq<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>He could clearly see his targets through thermal images on a computer\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>When he was recruited to the job, he was told he would be like the smart guys in the control room in a James Bond movie<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">By<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"color:#0000ff\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/home\/search.html?s=&amp;authornamef=Hayley+Peterson\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span style=\"color:#0000ff\">HAYLEY PETERSON<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">A former drone operator who helped kill 1,626 targets says he&#8217;s haunted by the carnage he witnessed from behind his computer screen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">Brandon Bryant, 27, served as a drone operator from 2006 to 2011 at bases in Nevada, New Mexico and Iraq. It was a desk job of sorts, but unlike any other, it involved ordering unmanned aircraft to kill faraway targets while he watched.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">In an interview with<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"color:#0000ff\"><a href=\"http:\/\/openchannel.nbcnews.com\/_news\/2013\/06\/06\/18787450-former-drone-operator-says-hes-haunted-by-his-part-in-more-than-1600-deaths?lite\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span style=\"color:#0000ff\">NBC News<\/span><\/a><\/span>&#8216; <span style=\"color:#000000\">foreign correspondent Richard Engel, Bryant recalled one operation where his team fired two missiles from a drone at three men in Afghanistan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">&#8216;The guy that was running forward, he\u2019s missing his right leg,&#8217; he said, recalling what he saw of the scene through the thermal images on his screen. &#8216;And I watch this guy bleed out and, I mean, the blood is hot.&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">He recalled watching the mens&#8217; bodies grow cold, as slowly the red color detecting the heat of their bodies grew smaller.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">&#8216;I can see every little pixel if I just close my eyes,&#8217; he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">Bryant is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after his five years as a drone operator. He said he sought help for the emotions he was experiencing on his job but &#8216;one of the weird things about the whole drone community is you don&#8217;t talk about anything that you&#8217;ve done. You just don&#8217;t,&#8217; he told<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/about\/press\/2013\/050313.ATCInterviewDroneOperator.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u00a0<span style=\"color:#0000ff\">NPR<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color:#000000\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">Bryant recalled to NBC when an Air Force recruiter told him that as a drone operator, &#8216;he would be like the smart guys in the control room in a James Bond movie.&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">But that wasn&#8217;t the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">He said he began feeling paranoid that he was killing innocent people, not Taliban insurgents. And he felt that it wasn&#8217;t his place to question the people giving him orders to launch the missile attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18563\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18563\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/article-2336905-19f337d0000005dc-320_634x414.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18563\" alt=\"Deadly machines: Two Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial vehicles are seen on the tarmac at a Northrop Grumman test facility in Palmdale, California\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/article-2336905-19f337d0000005dc-320_634x414.jpg?resize=490%2C319\" width=\"490\" height=\"319\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18563\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deadly machines: Two Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial vehicles are seen on the tarmac at a Northrop Grumman test facility in Palmdale, California<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">According to reports by\u00a0NBC\u00a0and\u00a0McClatchy newspapers, Bryant&#8217;s paranoia may not be unfounded.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#0000ff\"><a href=\"http:\/\/openchannel.nbcnews.com\/_news\/2013\/06\/05\/18781930-exclusive-cia-didnt-always-know-who-it-was-killing-in-drone-strikes-classified-documents-show?lite\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span style=\"color:#0000ff\">NBC<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"color:#000000\">reported Thursday that the CIA does not know the identity of a quarter of those killed in drone strikes in Pakistan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#0000ff\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcclatchydc.com\/2013\/04\/09\/188062\/obamas-drone-war-kills-others.html#.UbCfqjfhJ8G\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span style=\"color:#0000ff\">McClatchy<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"color:#000000\">&#8216;s\u00a0Jonathan S. Landay has also reported that at least 265 of up to 482 people who were killed by drones during a 12-month period ending September 2011 were not senior al Qaida leaders but instead were &#8216;assessed&#8217; as unknown extremists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">The reports add to growing scrutiny of President Obama&#8217;s increased reliance on unmanned aircraft. The Air Force now has roughly 1,300 drone operators, which is four times what it had in 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">As the drone program grows, researchers are beginning to delve into the psychological effects of remotely-controlled warfare.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">A\u00a0 recent study by Defense Department researchers found that the prevalence of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder among drone operators is equal to that of deployed pilots.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">&#8216;Remotely piloted aircraft pilots may stare at the same piece of ground for days,&#8217; Jean Lin Otto, co-author of the study, told the<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"color:#0000ff\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/02\/23\/us\/drone-pilots-found-to-get-stress-disorders-much-as-those-in-combat-do.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span style=\"color:#0000ff\">New York Times<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"color:#000000\">. &#8216;They witness the carnage. Manned aircraft pilots don\u2019t do that. They get out of there as soon as possible.&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18564\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18564\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/article-2336905-1a0a6794000005dc-650_634x414.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18564\" alt=\"President Obama's increasing reliance on unmanned aircraft has come under fire on Capitol Hill\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/article-2336905-1a0a6794000005dc-650_634x414.jpg?resize=490%2C319\" width=\"490\" height=\"319\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18564\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Obama&#8217;s increasing reliance on unmanned aircraft has come under fire on Capitol Hill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">Based on his commander&#8217;s count, Bryant helped kill 1,626 people during his time as a drone operator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">He is now retired from the Air Force and has returned to his home in Montana, where he is haunted by that number and the images of carnage that he saw.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">&#8216;I don\u2019t feel like I can really interact with that average, everyday person,&#8217; he told NBC. &#8216;I get too frustrated, because A, they don&#8217;t realize what&#8217;s going on over there. And B, they don&#8217;t care.&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#0000ff\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-2336905\/Ex-drone-operator-says-hes-haunted-carnage-caused-cover-screen.html\"><span style=\"color:#0000ff\">Fuente<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brandon Bryant, 27, served as a drone operator from 2006 to 2011 at bases in Nevada, New Mexico and Iraq He could clearly see his..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[166,21,43,84,46,189,97,119],"tags":[295,197,226,230],"class_list":["post-18561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-international","category-media-culture","category-statements","category-tvfilm","category-us-military","category-us-news","category-war","tag-afghanistan","tag-imperialism","tag-imperialist-war","tag-iraq"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/article-2336905-1a2ea384000005dc-140_634x423.jpg?fit=634%2C423&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39443,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18561\/revisions\/39443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}