![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/HK.jpg\" "\\"HK\\"")
<\/a>Air Force officer Mark McCurley was on a typical remotely piloted aircraft, or RPA, mission. For weeks, through his Predator drone\u2019s cameras, he had shadowed a Taliban agent in Afghanistan, watching the man, his wife, his children, his home, his daily routine. One day, when his commanders gave him the order, he fired rockets into a field where the agent and his bodyguard were standing, killing them both.<\/p>\nMcCurley then finished his shift at Nellis Air Force Base and commuted to his apartment in Las Vegas, getting caught in a traffic jam along the way.<\/p>\n
In what his publisher says is the first inside account of the USAF\u2019s remotely piloted, unmanned air campaign in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and other dangerous places, McCurley tells the story of the schizophrenic life of drone pilots: A 12-hour shift on base, immersed in a mission above a combat zone, often flying in direct support of American ground forces, followed by a commute home, cable TV and a general public, including neighbors, who have no idea, nor understanding, of what he\u2019d been doing.<\/p>\n
McCurley was an early RPA volunteer. A graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, he aspired to a career as a combat pilot but was a victim of circumstances. His career prospects were dim when an opportunity arose that few others wanted. Most RPA pilots at the time were washouts from other piloting programs, he writes, and they weren\u2019t enthusiastic about their new assignments.<\/p>\n
In Hunter Killer<\/em>, McCurley, now retired as a lieutenant colonel, takes us through his career, from his training, to numerous surveillance and combat missions flown from the relative comforts of an American base, through bureaucratic wars and finally to a monumental mission from a base in the Horn of Africa.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a compelling story, if at times a tedious one. Those of us who aren\u2019t pilots will have trouble following his often-prolonged stories of flight challenges. And there are times that the dialogue simply grates. Maybe military people really speak like that, but it doesn\u2019t make it any easier to read.<\/p>\n There is plenty to learn, however, of the evolution of the warrior drone, from its relatively minor role to its widespread use today.<\/p>\n Then there is the story of the traffic jam, and of the unusual combat stress that RPA pilots undergo. Daily movement from war zone back to shopping malls and backyard barbecues has created psychological stresses that only this year forced the military to reduce drone missions. There aren\u2019t enough pilots; too many are simply worn out.<\/p>\n McCurley successfully maneuvers between the various worlds, and writes a memoir worth reading. Graham\u2019s narration is competent, but his voice doesn\u2019t sound appropriate for a veteran military man from Mississippi. It\u2019s too young, too sweet, too na\u00efve, almost.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n