Flying drones from halfway across the world used to be considered a cushy, if somewhat sterile, military job. But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have gone on for so long – and become so dependent on the satellite-piloted planes – that Air Force commanders have had to call in chaplains, psychologists and psychiatrists "to help ease the mental strain on these remote-control warriors," the Associated Press reports.

Just a few years ago, pilots of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) crowed that "most of the time, I get to fight the war, and go home and see the wife and kids at night." Since then, the demands for remotely-flown spy planes have grown exponentially. Pilots' hours grew longer and longer. And they started to compare themselves to "prisoner[s] with [l]ife sentence[s]."

That's taking things to a whiny extreme. The chair-bound flyboys still have it pretty good, compared to the grunts of the Army or the Marines: No 15-month tours, no crappy rations, no chance of them or their friends getting blown up. But the constant back-and-forth between war and peace isn't without its unique strains. "It is quite different, going from potentially shooting a missile, then going to your kid's soccer game," sighs Lt. Col. Michael Lenahan.

In a fighter jet, "when you come in at 500-600 miles per hour, drop a

500-pound bomb and then fly away, you don't see what happens," said

Colonel Albert K. Aimar, who is commander of the 163rd Reconnaissance

Wing here and has a bachelor's degree in psychology. But when a

Predator fires a missile, "you watch it all the way to impact, and I mean it's very vivid, it's right there and personal. So it does stay in people's minds for a long time."

Ender's Game, anyone?

*[Photo: USAF] *

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