Brandon Bryant, Blue falcon drone guy, resurfaces
AtDrum dropped off a link in comments that Hondo sent to us to Brandon Bryant’s latest attempt to impress hippie chicks in the pages of GQ repeating the stories of his depredation as a drone operator;
From the darkness of a box in the Nevada desert, he watched as three men trudged down a dirt road in Afghanistan. The box was kept cold—precisely sixty-eight degrees—and the only light inside came from the glow of monitors. The air smelled spectrally of stale sweat and cigarette smoke. On his console, the image showed the midwinter landscape of eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar Province—a palette of browns and grays, fields cut to stubble, dark forests climbing the rocky foothills of the Hindu Kush.
Really? The air smelled of stale cigarette smoke? It must’ve been really stale because it’s been decades since the military allowed smoking in enclosed spaces and work areas. And why was anyone sweating? They were in an air-conditioned office. But that’s same kind of bullshit Bryant has spread and we’ve been able to disprove for months since his first appearance in the media complaining that the snack machine in his workspace ran out of Cheetos. He’s claiming that he caught the PTSD from watching the TV screens and his drone’s actions. I’m beginning to think that everything causes PTS if Bryant caught it.
While Bryant considers leakers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden heroes willing to sacrifice themselves for their principles, he’s cautious about discussing some of the details to which his top-secret clearance gave him access. Still, he is a curtain drawn back on the program that has killed thousands on our behalf.
And there it is – instead of being a quiet professional, Bryant wants to make a name for himself like Eddie Snowden and Breanna Manning. I’ve received several emails from some of the drone operators who despise Bryant for trying to make a name for himself on their work. Initially, Bryant claimed to have killed thousands of insurgents, and he was forced to back away from that number when his mates called him out. They’ve also disputed his other claims, but that doesn’t seem to stop him from flapping his gums, nor does it stop the media from returning to the lying little f*ck to give them the story that they’ve already written in their empty, pointed little heads.
Category: Blue Falcons
68 degrees is cold? Not to me it isn’t. And if it was so cold, why did the dark box smell of stale sweat? I think buddy boy here is a wanna be in more than one way.
When it comes to Bryant and those of his ilk, remember these words of wisdom from RangerUp:
68 degrees is not cold, unless of course you are a thin skinnned lying sack of shit pussy like Mr Bryant.
rb325th: depends on the individual and what you’re used to. 68F feels damned cool to cold when you’ve been out in 110+F ambient for a bit.
People also have different natural tolerance for heat and cold. In general, I find 68 rather cool but acceptable. I find 64-65F too cold for comfort for extended office work.
Of course, I don’t mind 90-100F too much. So I did OK in SWA. (smile)
Not just an air conditioned office, Jonn…..precisely 68 degrees, PRECISELY!!!
After reading that description I had the urge to slap a writer…literary license anyone?
@ Hondo, I will grant you that. BTDT having spent the majority of my life outdoors working, but once you have been inside for a few minutes the body adjusts itself. Ideal Tempatures for the human body are right around the 72 degree mark, so your body will adjust to that 68 degrees quickly and be more comfortable than you just were in the 110 degrees.
Added to my last comment;
The real issue is that nothing he says can be trusted or believed.
Afghan fields cut to stubble? Gee whiz, what I saw in Afghanistan was fields plowed and planted with winter wheat. I didn’t see no stubble.***
Must have been his 3-day growth of unkempt personal stubble. Cigarette smoke and sweat? In an air-conditioned office? Okay, the writer of that piece of poppycock is definitely a wannabe novelista. Unfortunately, as much as I love purple writing and take it deeply to heart, it isn’t even close enough to purple to get even a half-star from me. LAME!!!!
***Vert glad now that I watched ‘Bomb Patrol Afghanistan’.
One question: how do sweat and cigarette smoke generate a ‘spectral smell’?
I know that GQ is a wannabe version of Cosmo (mag for girls), but this is just plain atrocious writing. Didn’t they do an exposee on some jackwagon who moved in with Sharon Stone’s ex a few months ago? And it turned into complete BS?
Jeebus, we had to keep the inside of our aircraft at 58 degrees because of all the electronics aboard. Outside in 100 degree heat and high humidity, loading torpedoes or other ordnance and expendable stores, then going inside for 10+ hours at a stretch didn’t cause sweating. It usually caused exhaustion, and occasionally pneumonia.
What I am most surprised about is how this jackwagon wasn’t shut down by his commanding officer, and his ass put on desk duty somewhere until he could be kicked out. He’s got no business doing that job.
Keeping the box at exactly 68 degrees isn’t that hard, and given the nature of the electronic equipment in use, it makes sense. And if I remember right this guy is in AZ, so its possible everytime he went outside in the summer to smoke, he worked up a sweat, came back in, found the tempature cold and that he’d brought the smell of smoke and sweat with him…
And you know what? I’m tired of trying to look at things from these jack wagons POV. I mean screw it. He’s telling stories that could be plausable, but is stretching them until they no longer make sense.
Could he have PTS from his service? Sure. Killing a person, isn’t something that should be taken lightly, no matter how its done. It doesn’t matter if you are seperated by iron sights, a scope, or a video screen, killing somone is killing someone and some people can’t cope with that.
But this novalization of his stories, the wannabe Hemmingwayesq way this stuff is being presented just makes him look like an attention seeking Ana and will hurt those others who really can’t/couldn’t cope with what they did and saw.
rb325th: agreed on this tool. IMO he’s a LSoS and little else.
My point was that yes, the body adjusts – to a point. But different people are different in their tolerance zones.
In my case, I’m usually comfortable at 85-90F in shirtsleves, even in relatively high humidity. I start to feel it when the air temp drops below about 70F and start getting rather uncomfortable in the mid-60sF (sedentary work – different story if working hard enough to generate substantial additional body heat). In contrast, I’ve known people who loved cooler temps but who started to wilt pretty badly (and suffer) when the temp got much above 80F.
SGT Kane: actually, if I remember correctly PTS requires actual exposure to personal risk or the results of violence for a valid diagnosis. Viewing images on a screen wouldn’t seem to qualify.
There’s a related condition (name escapes me) that might apply to this guy’s claims. Maybe one of our psyche/med folks out there can help here?
Hondo: A rose by any other name and all that 🙂
I know there’s sympathetic PTS that many therapists and social works lay claim too. The concept is they are exposed to so much/so many horror stories from the victims that they end up with the same behavioral problems and issues as those who experienced it first hand. I’m not sure if that’s what you are referring too.
That’s different than this jackwagon’s case though. As a drone operator, he did a bit more than just watch something on a TV screen. He pulled the trigger, and that is the act, in my non-professional opinion, that he has to live with. So its not so much what he saw, as what he did.
Hondo, I can vouch for the adjustment. When I went to skating practice, wearing just a short sleeved skating skirt and leggings had me sweating like a pig, and the air temperature on the rink was 30F, to keep the ice hard. I found that using extra moisturizing lotion kept the cold at bay, also.
On the other hand, when I taught the toddler skating classes, where I wasn’t moving very much, I nearly froze without a jacket, sweat pants and boot covers, and even then, I was mostly exhausted from just standing in the cold of the studio rink, which was much more concentrated than the main rink.
That said, I’m still struggling with the ‘spectral smell’ part. Cigarette smoke and sweat mixed together do not make a spectral smell but they DO make a smell worse than flatus, when put together.
A spectral smell would be more like the faint odor of toast and bacon when there is no one in the kitchen, and it’s 2AM.
SGT Kane: don’t argue that the guy might be feeling guilt and having issues. My only argument is with him claiming PTSD, as he was never personally seriously at risk of death or serious disability.
Ex-PH2: “spectral smell” = ghost BO/flatus
Hondo, please post a spew alert for something like that. TNX!
Some writer must have learned a new word in class, but spectral? I always understood spectral to mean ghostly. That would make the smell almost indistinguishable if taken literally…I suspect he meant the “pungent aroma of stale cigarettes and sweat permeated the room like bad cologne in an old folks home”…some of these writers can’t use evocative writing to generate any real sense of image…yet someone pays them every week, we can only hope it’s not much.
68 degrees is prime time warm weather for soccer here in new england…we’ll be playing and refereeing this weekend when the weather reaches a high of about 48 degrees…wearing an UnderArmor cold gear turtleneck a referee shirt and a pair of shorts….hell come spring we will ski in shorts when it hits 48….those first few March days that get above 40 often feel like the beginning of a heat wave…probably in Alaska anything over 32 feels like summer…
Boy’s needing some serious help. We’ve got another Matthis in the making here.
Chilled to 68? Christ I wonder how our little jackwagon would handle New Hampshire winters. Most folks like me might kick up the heat to 68 in the mornings and evenings but it’s 62-64 during the day, and 58 at night. Amazing how quickly you can work up a sweat in 20-degree temps shoveling snow.
But this whiny bitch needs to just go away. This article must have caught him on a heavy flow day.
Hmmm. To have PTSD, wouldn’t one actually need to be a party to some of that “T” thing??
I’m not supporting this guys actions in any way, personally he strikes me as a great big wanna-be looking for attention. But it does seem some people’s knowlege on PTSD needs to be updated.
The following link lays out the most recent DSM-5 Criteria for PTSD.
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/pages/dsm5_criteria_ptsd.asp
According to the link from 23 I now can claim PTSD because when my favorite cat died I was constantly reminded of her. I mourned her for more than a month… Every time I played with the other cat I had memories of playing with her. It got where I didn’t want to buy cat food because it reminded me of my poor cat. A simple Meow would make me jump and look around thinking it was her…
Is that worth a % yet?
Brandon “Mangina” Bryant, ’nuff said!
For the last 4 years I was on AD I was a drone driver. Not one of those lucky ass hats that got to sit on their asses here stateside and go home at night to their family, I was deployed to Iraq in 06 and got to stay there for 15 months. I am diagnosed with PTSD, some of which my shrink says can be attributed to the drone driver activities but most of it from other shit from that deployment and my initial deployment to Iraq in 2003. Having said that, this guys a fucking turd. Way to make the rest of us who do our jobs day in and day out look like utter and complete assholes.
As far as the whole PTSD claims this douche canoe is crying about. Its possible, he may well have found it traumatic watching people die through the lens of a Pred cam. There are some things I regret, feel guilt over, and am still just plain pissed off about that I watched through the lens of a UAS platform. Granted, being over there and working with the dudes you provide aerial cover for is a lot different than being here stateside and getting tasked ISO whatever mission youre assigned to.
That picture speaks volumes.
They need to take this slimeball’s eyes
Jacobite: yeah, I saw that after I posted my first comment about PTSD above. I’m still not buying seeing an occasional explosion or dead body 10,000 miles away on a computer screen being an example of “(r)epeated or extreme indirect exposure to aversive details of the event(s), usually in the course of professional duties”. And based on the examples given of such “repeated or extreme indirect exposure”, I’m pretty sure I’m correct by any common-sense measure in NOT buying it.
I don’t care if this guy’s actions while flying or otherwise operating equipment associated with an RPA resulted in enemy casualties or not. Causing enemy casualties kinda the point of much of what the military tries to do during wartime. And, frankly, I’m not buying some of his stories on plausibility grounds. And as a RPA sensor operator (I believe that’s what he’s previously said his role was), I don’t think he’d be the one pushing the button to engage targets, anyway (could well be wrong about that).
People who flew missions in-theater from locations where bullets were flying or shells were falling were personally at risk, albeit not as much as the guy walking point through neighborhoods in Baghdad. For at least his last tour, this guy was in CONUS.
No secret I am aviation. I just spent the last few days watching the cams of my attached Apache guys. I have literally volunteered to load racks for them at the FARP during the war part of OIF. I completely understand that those are actual people eating Hellfires.
I sleep very well.
On a side note I now note that in the last 10 years of warfare arguing over the ROE and clearances now takes up most of the time in these vids… And the AF loves to interrupt positive ID by dropping bombs that seem to miss everything… I love the A-10 guys, but sometimes they seem just a wee bit too eager to me.
I crossed paths with Brandon several times during that 2007 deployment (after knowing him from tech school during 2005-06). He was one of my roommates for a short while, and I also did several of their post-engagement debriefs. Nothing like this ever came up at that time, and here he is again just when I thought I was done facepalming.
I am catching the PDST just reading this BS!
Hondo,
As I said, it’s not my intention to justify the shit bird’s claims, or in any way defend his actions. To my way of thinking, the way he has ‘marketed’ himself pretty much put paid to a claim of anything. At the same time I get a little disturbed listening to people make armchair diagnosis with less than current or correct information.
I believe it’s absolutely possible for someone to legitimately suffer from PTSD brought on by that type of work. I don’t, however, believe for a second that Brandon actually suffers from it, his pre-existing narcissistic personality disorder would get in the way. 🙂
“…chilled to 68 degrees.” Poooor fragile ‘lil critter, I’d hate to have seen him riding in the turret of a Gun Truck doing Convoy Escort Missions during the Afghan winter, where it got around zero degrees Fahrenheit at night and up in the teens during the day. Couple that with wind chill, and he’d probably break like a cheap glass dropped on concrete!
Eventually, you get to the point that if you don’t sleep soundly, you smell smells that really aren’t in the air, and you recall unpleasant and unnerving scenes or situations, well, you are a victim and a compensable one at that. Eventually? Yeah, that’s a point we passed some years ago. So, how do EMS and ER personnel deal with what they have to deal with on a regular basis?
@29–I’m pretty sure I’m correct by any common-sense measure in NOT buying it.
I’ve seen plenty of “pink mist” and “flying Jihadis” linked on Weasel Zippers and YouTube.
Does this mean I have teh PTSD now too?
I am going to try to explain PTSD from my personal experience and a few others. First a flight Doc who worked a C-130 that ground-looped on landing,full of Marines from OKi this would have been their first day in Nam- no suveriors. So you might guess the condition of the bodies. This Doc still has nightmares and nightsweats. Fall of 66, I think it was Deckhouse IV with 2/4. A reinf Blt of appox. 1200 marines,they ambrushed below LZ Stud and in 3 days of fighting were reduced to 125 walking wounded, senior rank a E-6 as rumor was aboard ship. Recoverery of the bodies took 3 days. There was pics in the newspapers of track crewmen wearing gas masks moving the remains to the pickup zone. They did not give us aircrewmans gas masks. More than I can or want to rem ember a Doc would run from Medsical across the hangar deck yelling fire in hole repeatedly and a grenade out the open hangar door. The NVA had boobytrapped some of the remains. My Psych said the PTSD is revelant to instentify and the times of exposure. That is all for now . joe
This guy takes it in the ass.
I can only imagine that will be his next article.
Love the flight suit as well while sitting on his bed at his mom’s house.
Ninja, please….
Wonder whatever happened to critical incident stress management. Probably went by the wayside because it was actually effective in getting folks through tough situations and back to effective working order.
Some dumbass turds never learn. Brandon, go away.
From http://www.vhpa.org/KIA/panel/battle/66091501.HTM
Operation Prairie I/Deckhouse IV casualties 36 KIA 167 WIA. I know of no operation during Vietnam in which a Marine battalion suffered 90% casualties.
This turd is on cnn right now. “Helped kill 1626 people.” Flip it on if you want to get sick/angry
You guys are all mistaken about the spectral smells. Some ghosts just like to smoke and work out. Don’t hate.
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2013/10/24/amanpour-gorani-former-drone-opertor-bryant.cnn&hpt=hp_t2&from_homepage=yes#/video/world/2013/10/24/amanpour-gorani-former-drone-opertor-bryant.cnn
OMF now he’s on CNN in video…
@35 “So, how do EMS and ER personnel deal with what they have to deal with on a regular basis?”
Sometimes not very well at all. I worked in this field for a couple years and yes, EMT’s and ER personnel frequently suffer from PTSD.
In a 2007, and a 2010 study it was determined that approx 15% of full-time, 23% of part-time, and 18% of volunteer EMS workers leave their jobs annually, and EMS nationally is cronically understaffed due to turn over. This is an issue not widely pubicized since it doesn’t possess the political currency of PTSD among military vets.
(JEMS 2007 salary & workplace survey. In a world run on dollars, what about the people? Williams DM – JEMS. 2007 Oct; 32(10):42-54, 56-7.) (Prehosp Emerg Care. 2010 April 6; 14(2): 209–221)
A few studies have shown at least 20% of the EMS workforce have suffered from PTSD, it is believed to be way higher than that however. One study in Chicago alone showed that while the national average for suicides was 11 per 100,000, the CFD suicide rate was 250 per 100,000. Ya, these guys and gals suffer from it plenty, but again there’s no political jewel in the story, so it’s not widely publicized.
(http://privateofficernews.wordpress.com/2012/06/23/chicago-firefighter-suicide-report-seeks-answers-www-privateofficer-com.)
As for PTSD among ER workers, I don’t have as much experience in that field, so I haven’t paid that much attention. If some of my nursing friends are to be believed however it is likely abnormaly high there as well. Lord knows THEIR turn over rate is plenty high, and there’s certainly a nursing shortage across the country.
So again, “So, how do EMS and ER personnel deal with what they have to deal with on a regular basis?”
Like I said, not very well.
Listening to the video on CNN now, and I hate this guy even more.
Now this guy is writing “comedy” http://www.cracked.com/article_20725_6-myths-about-drone-warfare-you-probably-believe.html?wa_user1=3&wa_user2=Tech&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=feature_module