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Vance grad is first to go straight to UAVs

One of the first airmen assigned straight to UAV duty graduated Friday from undergraduate pilot training, JSUPT Class 09-01 at Vance Air Force Base, Okla.

First Lt. Patrick Lebow will be one of at least 300 brand-new pilots sent to Creech Air Force Base, N.M., over the next three years — part of an aggressive effort to double the number of Predator and Reaper orbits in the Central Command area of responsibility by 2012. To do that, the Air Force wants to more than double its UAV pilots, from about 450 to about 1,100.

Another part of the plan — to get non-rated officers behind the joystick — takes off in January, when the first test group of 10 officers enters a new training course.

Lebow, who entered the Air Force through Officer Training School, learned of his assignment Oct. 9.

“I spent the first 24 hours just kind of processing it. I experienced the whole gamut of emotions at that point,” Lebow said in a Vance news release. “As I’ve been thinking about it, I see it as somewhat of a retooling of my dreams, not necessarily taking them away by any means. I’m looking forward to what lies ahead.”

Lebow, like all the new pilots, will serve a two- to three-year tour before being assigned to a manned aircraft.

“It’s not what I wanted to do, but I do the job that’s put in front of me to the best of my ability,” Lebow said.

“The Air Force is bigger than me. The Air Force doesn’t exist to serve my needs, I exist to serve the needs of the Air Force.”