The Art of War: A US Drone Operator's Diary

Special Insight Article for Nomos Centre for Future Warfare (NCFW) by Brandon Bryant, former US Drone Operator, US Air Force.

When I first joined the United States military, I had no real understanding of the philosophies that drove men to fight one another. All I knew was that we had an enemy, and it was our duty to fight. As a warrior born and raised, I knew how to fight. On the wrestling mat, it was you and your opponent; honour was paramount. The restrictions we placed on ourselves also granted mastery over the skills we developed. But it wasn’t war.

Sun Tzu says that "all warfare is deception," and that war never changes. We have an English phrase that says, “All is fair in love and war.” So, what makes love different from war? It’s that love cannot be deceptive at all. If we are to engage with all people equally—from our dearest to the ones we most revile—we must do so from a moral standpoint, or not at all.

In his book The Art of War, Sun Tzu describes the five components that determine victory in any battle. They are: Heaven (the immutable laws that govern the universe), Earth (those things in constant change), The General (the order and discipline of the troops), the Sovereign (the reason in your heart for which you fight), and the Moral Law (the unifying factor). He says that even if you have the first four, if you do not have the Moral Law on your side, you will lose every time. Furthermore, later in the text, he states that if you do not know yourself or your enemy, you will lose every battle. If you know yourself but not your enemy, you will win half. But if you know yourself and your enemy, you need not fear the outcome of any battle.

The crucible of life is the ultimate battle, and the wrestling mat, in my experience, is the best practice ground. If we are to engage in this subject further in this writing, then we must not come from a place of deception, but from a place of practice and mastery, so that when we reflect on what we have seen in recent world history, we can see through the veil that war casts upon the battlefield and act with the understanding of love. This is the most difficult part, because war is not lovely, and we must witness the true character of mankind at his worst. However, that is also where we can learn the true power of mercy and justice so that we are not deceived again.

My first mentor in the 15th Reconnaissance Squadron was not an American service member, but a Chief Petty Officer from the British Royal Navy. For the first 15 days after I completed drone training at the 11th Training Recon Squadron, the CPO led me through the paces for solo flight qualifications. During that time, he told me his story, which made me question the actions of my leadership when things didn’t seem right. That, in turn, led to me being labeled a “troublemaker” because I had a moral obligation to follow the rules. My direct leadership told me that wasn’t “how the real Air Force worked.” As punishment, my days off were taken away, and my leave time was denied. I worked the night shift on the line for four years, which gave me plenty of time to reflect.

I came from a devout Christian family—my callsign was "Church" because I was the “good church boy.” It seemed more like a mockery and a curse than a noble nickname after I pulled the trigger for the first time. All my other human fallacies seemed forgivable up until that moment. Men in my chain of command would tell me we were fighting “God’s enemies,” with all the flavour of racism you could find, along with a Wild West mentality of dispensing justice to win the Global War on Terror.

I remember the last time I read my Bible. I was 24 years old, finished the Sermon on the Mount, closed the book, and vowed to find the truth that soothed my soul. In that first shot, I felt like Abraham, taking my inner child up the mountain to sacrifice it to God. No angel of the Lord appeared to stop it. No prophet of the Lord came to condemn me for my sins. It was then that I found the Tao Te Ching and read Lao Tzu’s 31st verse, which became the foundation of my soul.

It states, in my favourite translation:

All tools of violence are detestable to decent men,But all decent men will knowThat when the time comesThey would pull their swordsWith the utmost sorrow and regret.For the beings they fightAre not demons,But human beings like themselves.So they wade into battleAs if attending their enemy’s funeral.

All around me in the military community, we were celebrating each kill as a victory in the Global War on Terror. They would high-five and cheer when people died, and "collateral damage" was not seen as a mitigating factor, but rather as something to be disregarded—part of a tally system where everyone had no innocence. They tracked it all in a database, and at the end of my military journey, they handed me a numbers report on my contributions to the squadron.

UNCLASSIFIED MISSION REPORT FROM BRYANT,B

(PROVIDED BY AUTHOR)

I will admit that had you asked me for an estimate before I was handed this report, I would have said and hoped that my numbers were below 100. If those investigating my mission participation haven’t figured it out by now, every mission I had after returning from Iraq was one where I would not be in a position to pull the trigger ever again. Herein lies my inner struggle with my Oath and my Duty: Did I follow through with my hard work and serve honorably, or was I a coward because I would not participate beyond what I was willing? Every death I mourned in private, every lost soul became a weight upon my heart. None of this grief have I found anyone to share it with, so I carry it like a stalwart pallbearer.

A psychopomp to the carnage I bore witness to.

With the foundation of the Tao under my feet, I began to explore the philosophies of war, from all cultures and all times, starting with the most ancient. I had seen enough blood spilled to ink any pen I write with, to cover any canvas, to stain my soul. The words of wisdom I was given became life rafts to carry me to the other side. One of them came from a pilot famous for his participation in Operation Anaconda’s tragic outcome, known as Robert’s Ridge. He had command of the AC-130 that stayed past daybreak despite being ordered by a three-star general to return to base. The sum of his advice was, “Do the right thing, no matter the cost. When you have to face the consequences, do so with your head held high.”

I take myself back to that conversation. I was building a mission folder, and I was having a lot of drama with my Airman peers. I thought they were undisciplined idiots, and I wanted nothing to do with them. So I worked. Night shift. I cleaned toilets and the common area—whatever I could do to keep away from them. All that did was build animosity and resentment, which lay buried for years. The words of then-Lt. Col. DJ Turner kept me disciplined and duty-oriented.

But truly, it was the words and mentorship of Chief Petty Officer Paul O’Shaughnessy that helped me build courage and confidence in my work. At the start of my career, as I mentioned, I spent time with this old codger, and I remember every bit of it fondly—especially the time when one of my idiot peers told him everything they were accusing me of, and he put me through my paces with an ad hoc SEFE inspection flight. The only reason he didn’t give me a perfect score was because he was in a bad mood. When we parted ways, he told me that he had always believed in me and that he was proud. Then, I left for Iraq.

One of the things the CPO taught me was the idea of standing up against bad leadership. When I started doing that, I ended up in the First Sergeant’s Office due to the drama, and he gave me a little brown book called the Enlisted Force Structure, which literally states in the opening paragraph that “we do not discard the responsibilities of the ranks below us; we only add to them.” I used it with brutal efficiency, enough for people to leave me alone. It was then that I started to understand the true power of integrity and honor.

See, the rules of law we agree to are not actually inherent laws that govern anything. They are the ways by which we, as human beings, agree to curb our negative side so we don’t destroy one another. As these laws evolve, they either add chains to society or give definable boundaries within which citizens can act. What we want, ultimately, is a society where every man and woman is free to act as they choose, safely, and is not protected from the consequences of their actions. Everyone is allowed to make mistakes and correct them.

In conclusion, the rules we agree to abide by all stem from the fairness of competition. In sports, this is the most ideal place, because in a truly fair and honorable "fight," we can clearly see who has mastered their discipline. When a person loses honorably, everyone inherently knows. When another raises their hand after being underhanded and deceitful, everyone also knows. Of the two, who is more respected? Who has followed the Moral Law? When the truth is seen, the code of conduct clearly defined, and mastery displayed, The Art of War defines it as winning without ever fighting.