The New Top Guns Of The U.S. Air Force

U.S. Air Force Major Casey Tidgewell, right, and Senior Airman William Swain operate an MQ-9 Reaper drone from a ground-control station at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nev. (Ethan Miller / Getty)

A New Kind of 'Top Gun' for a New Kind of War -- Time Magazine

As a small boy living near an Air Force base in Florida, Steve Petrizzo would crane his neck as jets roared overhead. "Every day in elementary school I would look up into the sky and see a four-ship formation of F-16s flying over, and I just thought that was the coolest thing," he recalls. "I always wanted to fly." By the time he entered high school, however, Petrizzo believed that his poor vision would keep him grounded.

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My Comment: The Air Force has allocated $3.5 billion for new UAVs and UAV operations in the next fiscal year. Expect more drone pilots to graduate in the months and years to come.