{"id":143486,"date":"2023-06-26T09:49:29","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T13:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=143486"},"modified":"2023-06-26T09:57:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T13:57:32","slug":"marines-need-a-few-drone-pilots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=143486","title":{"rendered":"Marines Need a Few Drone Pilots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-143487 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/mq9.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"274\" height=\"183\" \/><br \/>\n<em>General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (VMU-1, 3rd MAW), procured the Marine Corps\u2019 first MQ-9A \u201cReaper\u201d remotely piloted aircraft at Marine Corps Aircraft Station Yuma, Arizona in August 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVMU-1 is living the Commandant\u2019s vision of Force Design 2030, and our unit is laying the groundwork for future squadrons to execute similar missions within INDOPACOM [U.S. Indo-Pacific Command] or anywhere else that we are needed,\u201d said Maj. Keenan Chirhart, executive officer of VMU-1.<\/p>\n<p>Tough to implement the Commandant&#8217;s vision when their birds are on the ground. They need warm bodies to drive the things.<\/p>\n<h3>Who can fly the Marine Corps\u2019 Reaper drones?<\/h3>\n<p><strong>By Irene Loewenson<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Marine Corps has MQ-9 Reapers, large uncrewed aircraft designed primarily for intelligence-gathering. But who can fly them?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a question Gen. David Berger, the Marine commandant, posed in a training and education planning document released in January.<br \/>\n~~~~~~~~~~~~<br \/>\nUnder the heading \u201cIssues Requiring Further Analysis,\u201d Berger wrote, \u201cMQ-9 Operators. Should the Marine Corps consider other options besides commissioned officers to become qualified as naval aviators?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For now, the Marine Corps appears to lean toward \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMarine Corps aviation has a strong lineage dating back over 100 years that celebrates commissioned officers, warrant officers, and enlisted ranks alike,\u201d Maj. Jay Hernandez, a spokesman for Marine aviation, wrote in a statement to Marine Corps Times. \u201cDue to U.S. Code and the commitments required of the naval aviation pipeline, commissioned officers are the optimal choice in fulfilling naval aviator criteria.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2023\/06\/23\/who-can-fly-the-marine-corps-reaper-drones\/\">Marine Corps Times<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The &#8216;optimal choice&#8217; Reaper pilot candidates are staying away in droves, small wonder why. Recruitment is already a self-inflicted problem, and those motivated and qualified to become a Marine Aviator want to fly the F-35 and not a computer consol. If the Corps wants to fill these billets they&#8217;ll have to cast their net a bit farther, and reconsider the Naval Aviator-only requirement for drone drivers.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>And if you&#8217;re stuck in UAVs then my advice to you,<br \/>\nIs to drink the fucking bottle, man, there&#8217;s nothing left to do.<br \/>\nDos Gringos <em>Jerimiah Weed<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (VMU-1, 3rd &hellip; <a title=\"Marines Need a Few Drone Pilots\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=143486\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Marines Need a Few Drone Pilots<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":143487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,184],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blue-skies","category-marine-corps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/143487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}