Been considering re-training into this career field. Enlisted members control the $1 million dollar sensors on these planes and also guide the rockets which are actually fired by the pilot. I spent 5 hours with the guys flying these here at our base in Iraq and got a good look at what they do. I even got to control the sensor for a while. It was pretty amazing. I was following trucks on the highway, searching roads for things out of the ordinary, inspecting bridges, etc. All in pitch-black darkness. I like how they have to learn many things to do their job. They have to learn flying, how airports and air traffic control works, imagery analysis, tactics for attacking with the weapons, etc. They are in direct support of special forces teams all over the globe right there from their base in the states. A lot of boring times too of course, but when stuff happens they say it’s the best feeling in the world because they can actually save lives of guys on the ground.
The ~$80,000 re-enlistment bonus helps too. :) They are in extraordinarily high demand, so their re-enlistment bonus is huge. They can easily make over 6-figures on the outside which is why so many are getting out. They get worked hard though, very long hours.
I haven’t watched this segment yet as their stupid Flash video player apparently doesn’t cache the video, it’s streaming only. So after it all downloaded I tried to go back to the beginning and it started downloading again. Stupid.
