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Reward UAV pilots

UAV pilots won’t be changing jobs for the next two years.

In an Oct. 16 memo to all airmen assigned to unmanned aerial vehicles, Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz explain they had no choice but to extend a 2007 freeze on career reassignments through 2011 because of war-fighting demands and a shortage of UAV personnel.

For pilots who thought they’d get back in a cockpit sometime soon, it’s a kick in the teeth. After four years or more of flying from a cubicle, their flying careers may well be over.

While their peers rack up the flight hours and war-zone experience that will get them command time, instructor duty and promotions, UAV pilots are risking long-term damage to their careers to fill critical roles in the Air Force’s hour of need.

Now the Air Force has to make it up to them.

If Donley and Schwartz believe what they wrote in their letter — that UAV fliers demonstrate “excellence and dedication” and are “writing the next chapter of Air Force history” — they should direct promotion boards to give these UAV officers special consideration.

Such recognition of the captains and majors who fly Predators and Reapers would not only reward them, but also encourage other airmen to follow in their footsteps as UAV pioneers. Putting some of these officers ahead of their flying peers would also help effect a cultural change, placing these officers in line for choice job assignments and opportunities that in recent generations were reserved for top-rated fighter pilots.

UAVs are arguably the most critical combat assets operated by the Air Force today. Leaders should recognize that by helping, not penalizing, the men and women who fly and operate them.