I think the push to accept unmanned planes has the same psychological effect on the Air Force that the push to eliminate horses had for the Army. (To a small extent, this is true across the broad range of the aviation community, I would say)
Think of how prevalent the image of the fighter pilot is in our society. The Air Force leadership grew up with images of Chuck Yeager. Today's Gen-Yers grew up wanting to be Maverick and Goose, or Luke Skywalker. Think of the plot of JAG--a Navy JAG lawyer also, from time to time, has to pilot F-14 Tomcats to fight terrorists. In order to pilot something, you need to have been (before laser surgery) born with superior eyesight, etc. It's almost as if you're born with a magical "gift".
I will agree that in the USAF's culture, being a rated aviator is everything. It's rare to see someone rise to high ranks and NOT be a rated aviator (although it looks as if this has changed in the last year or two). UAV operators are continually made fun of by the entire aviation community (The fact that UAV operators have received DFCs hasn't helped the resentment, either), and are treated as "less than aviators". But the interesting point of the matter is that UAVs are, in fact, becoming a much more prevalent portion of the aviation community, and is doing so rapidly. I'm not pushing for the complete removal of manned aircraft from the inventory, but we could conceivably add many more unmanned aircraft to the fleet.
The decision to place them under ground or aviation units is a good one, as is whether or not to place them under the control of rated aviators. In my opinion, as congested as the airspace is now, I'd rather have them under the control of rated aviators instead of people who have never experienced a near mid-air incident, which is "game over" in a UAV, but not so much in a manned aircraft.
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