Welcome to Episode 92 of The Afghanistan Project, where we cover all topics related to two decades of war in Afghanistan, and the fallout of our Afghanistan withdrawal.

Today, my guest is U.S. Air Force veteran Tanner Yackley.Tanner has over a decade of expertise with the MQ-9 Reaper, including serving in combat capacity as a sensor operator. He is now a PhD candidate, and is focusing on the unique mental health challenges that drone operators and support personnel face as veterans.

Today, we’re discussing his combat experience with the MQ-9 Reaper, and how it differed from typical forward-deployed pilots’ and weapons system operators’ experiences. We discuss the mental health impact of the work pace and rotations and of replaying scenes of combat in order to become more adept at targeting.

We also talk about Tanner’s work into researching the mentalhealth of drone operators, which is not well understood in the health or veteran communities.

About the host:

Beth Bailey worked in support of Afghanistan operations as acivilian intelligence analyst for the Department of the Army between 2010 and 2013. She is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and the Washington Examiner.

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