"...do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."

"For the good of the Air Force, for the good of the armed services and for the good of our country, I urge you to reject convention and careerism..."
- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Maxwell AFB, April 21, 2008

"You will need to challenge conventional wisdom and call things like you see them to subordinates and superiors alike."
- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, United States Air Force Academy, March 4, 2011

Friday, January 7, 2022

Declining an interview with Lt Col (ret) Wayne Phelps author of "On Killing Remotely"

 

This morning I was contacted by a drone pilot I used to "fly" with.  He asked me if I was interested in doing an interview with Wayne Phelps, author of On Killing Remotely: The Psychology of Killing with Drones.  I politely declined the request for interview but pointed my former comrade to public information about the time I refused a mission to assassinate an American citizen without charge or trial.

I then took to Google to find out more about the author and found the CSPAN video linked above.  I didn't find the discussion particularly interesting with the exception of a claim made by Phelps at 34:21 into the video where he states:

There are some instances, interviews I had, where people actually refused to strike specific targets whether it was because it was a U.S. citizen or...


It's puzzling that Mr. Phelps would indicate that he has interviewed drone pilot(s) who refused to assassinate an American citizen.  I am the only person I know of to refuse such a mission and it was a lonely bullet on my resume to say the least.  I was not interviewed by Phelps and have had no communication with him, so I am very curious about his claim.  I find it extremely hard to believe.

 
ETA:

In the original blog post I indicated that at 34:21 Mr. Phelps had said he found that refusing to assassinate an American was likely to cause trauma and PTSD.  This was an error on my part and on second listen it appears he is suggesting that carrying out an unlawful order is likely to cause that mental disorder.  This blog post has been updated accordingly.

ETA:

Wayne Phelps is full of shit.  An anonymous source told me, so you can believe it.


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