November 14, 2009, I lay on a tiny, stiff, cold cot in the epicenter of the Hindu Kush Mountains, Afghanistan. Springing awake to explosions with gunfire piercing the thin plywood wall adjacent to my sleeping area. Swiftly, I gripped my sweat stained digital Interceptor Body Armor (IBA), Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH), and M-4 Carbine, preparing to dash for a fighting position. Hurling my ½ in thick wooden door open, I observed a sight like a scene from a war movie. The mountainside peppered with tracer fire, rocket propelled grenade (RPG) explosions slammed the HESCO ® barriers, sounds of screaming American Soldiers. Smell of gunpowder, heat, mixed within a nearby burn pit latched onto my senses. “ALAMO POSITIONS!” echoed through my AN/PRC-148 …show more content…
In this film, it commences with an interview of a Specialist asserting how they have recurrently tried to launch the Raven, it breaks, they put the components back on the fuselage, re-launch, it breaks… you get the point. (Underwood, 2012) The concentration of this video is not how terrible this operator is at launching, but to the vocabulary the Soldiers are using from things like “This thing never works”, or colorful language articulated at the Raven as it burns into the ground. However, why is the stigma attached to this UAS so negative? Why do Commanders not implement this tool, thus making it more a museum piece and not an …show more content…
From lifting some in depth tasks off the ground Soldier, allowing them to conduct their duties required. Along with enabling the Warfighting functions, allow the commander to adhere and meet his/her METL and intent. We also conversed how many commanders do not like the idea of an SUAV within their organization, let alone being responsible for an ATP. At the end of the day, the ultimate decision lays upon those appointed over myself and the rest of the Army. Currently there is no discussion of developing an MOS; however, with the current expansion of UAS within hundreds of applications, there may be a future in this