A former Air Force drone operator who says he participated in missions that killed more than 1,600 people remembers watching one of the first victims bleed to death.<\/p>\n
Brandon Bryant says he was sitting in a chair at a Nevada Air Force base operating the camera when his team fired two missiles from their drone at three men walking down a road halfway around the world in Afghanistan. The missiles hit all three targets, and Bryant says he could see the aftermath on his computer screen \u2013 including thermal images of a growing puddle of hot blood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guy that was running forward, he\u2019s missing his right leg,\u201d he recalled. \u201cAnd I watch this guy bleed out and, I mean, the blood is hot.\u201d As the man died his body grew cold, said Bryant, and his thermal image changed until he became the same color as the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can see every little pixel,\u201d said Bryant, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, \u201cif I just close my eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryant, now 27, served as a drone sensor operator from 2006 to 2011, at bases in Nevada, New Mexico and in Iraq, guiding unmanned drones over Iraq and Afghanistan. Though he didn\u2019t fire missiles himself he took part in missions that he was told led to the deaths of an estimated 1,626 individuals.<\/p>\n
In an interview with NBC News, he provided a rare first-person glimpse into what it\u2019s like to control the controversial machines that have become central to the U.S. effort to kill terrorists.<\/p>\n