Author of “Game of Drones” Rich Martindell, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF. Retired, is a former Air Force fighter pilot who relates his experiences and impressions about learning to fly the MQ-9 Reaper, a remotely piloted vehicle (RPV – drone).
The Alpine resident compares his experiences of flying the F-4 and F-15 in the Air Force with flying the MQ-9 on military missions as a civilian contract pilot. This autobiography gives the reader insights to the living and operational environments the author encountered in his deployments to remote locations in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. This book addresses the differences between flying manned and unmanned aircraft in military operations as well as the reasons RPV operators can suffer PTSD when flying from the safe confines of a control van out of harm’s way.
Martindell received his commission through the Air Force Reserve Officers Training program at the University of Arizona. After pilot training, he flew the F-4E on 232 combat missions in North and South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. He then moved to Spangdahlem, Germany, to sit fifteen-minute nuclear alert in the F-4D during the Cold War. Following a tour as an exercise planner on the Red Flag Staff at Nellis AFB, Nevada, he transitioned to the F-15A as a flight instructor at Luke AFB, Arizona. Martindell then returned to Germany to sit five-minute air defense alert in the F-15C at Bitburg Air Base before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany. He then moved to Deccimomannu Air Base, Italy, as the deputy commander of American flight operations, along with counterparts from Germany, Great Britain, and Italy. After retiring from the Air Force, he worked as the chief test pilot and test director for the F-15E flight simulator program for Hughes Aircraft, Raytheon Corporation, and L-3 Communications back at Luke AFB, Arizona. After moving to San Diego, he found an opportunity to work for General Atomics flying the MQ-9.
Martindell, now 76, said it was it was the day before his 70th birthday when he stepped off a plane at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq to help fight ISIS, the Taliban, and whoever else was fomenting trouble in the Middle East. He chronicled his experiences, and just recently published his book “Game of Drones” which is now available for purchase. He said this was not an easy process, as he had to get his full manuscript approved by the Pentagon and General Atomics before finding a publisher to publish the book ensuring that no classified or intellectual property was disclosed.
“This was an adventure that I wanted to capture, so I was taking notes at all times, to preserve, knowing that I was going to wait until I was done working for General Atomics to write this book,” he said. “Another thing I try to get across in the book is that I started working with drones when I was 70. There is still a lot of adventure that you can get as a senior. You do not have to go hibernate somewhere.”
Martindell said it was an interesting transition from flying fighter planes to drones.
“Inside a squadron, you have a lot of close relationships, camaraderie, taking care of each other, and making sure you all are doing well. You do not have that same camaraderie working with drones because you are plucked in and out of so many places for just a short period of time. Each deployment is three months long, but people are rotating in and out during that three-month period, so you do not have that consistency of togetherness,” he said.
Martindell said that there is a great sense of purpose in both.
“There are a lot of military in there. There are many people they hire straight out of college. It is a good variety of people,” he said.
Martindell said the use of drones is an efficient way of getting some things done that require a lot of duration, particularly if you want long-time surveillance.
“Working in that environment, flying a mission, flying that drone is one thing. But the living conditions you must put up with when you deploy is an interesting insight that people do not get readily available to them,” he said.
Martindell said the use of these surveillance drones have recently been used in working with the fires in California, helping the Forest Department and firefighters. He said the outside contract business of utilizing drones is large. Many countries will lease a drone before purchasing them to see how they can be used, depending on what their needs are. He said the last chapter of his book is about foreign military sales.
“The first part of the book is what I had to do to be able to operate the drones. Then I cover my four deployments, one to Iraq, to Africa, to Poland, and then Yuma, Arizona, where I was flying drones in the Middle East,” he said.
Martindell said it is common for drones to be flown from places so far away. He said take off and landing is done by line of sight at the place of flight, but once the drone is in the air, it is picked up by satellite link and then can be operated from any base.
Martindell said the book shows the day-to-day operations of a drone pilot but also talks about the personal demands of being a drone pilot.
“As a civilian, I cannot drop bombs,” he said. “Only military personnel can drop bombs. All I could do was surveil. All the drones that were dropping bombs in Iraq and Syria were being flown by military people,” he said.
Martindell said the demand and scrutiny for military personnel is tremendous, and especially military drone pilots can get PTSD from missions. He said this is a subject that he covers in his book.
“Everything that you do is recorded. All your communications and video are recorded. They see and hear everything that you do. If you mess up, there is no avoiding accountability. So, if you have a bad bombing, you are going to have to live with that. One person I know, a commander of a military unit, one of his personnel had a friendly-fire incident, and they had to put the guy on suicide watch because he felt so badly about it,” he said. “You are sitting safe wherever you are, but you are projected into combat operations. If you are getting ready to take a target out, especially if it is an individual, you monitor that individual for maybe two or three weeks. You will get to know that person on a very intimate basis. And then eventually, you kill him. And you watch him get killed. That takes away the detachment of most combat warfare and can be extremely difficult for military personnel operating drones.”
“Game of Drones” is now on sale on Amazon https://bit. ly/3ChgJLr, or directly from the publisher at https://bit. ly/3Wsn0La.ama
