Let us first honor our ancestors; an American military drone praises those who came first

Let us first honor our ancestors; an American military drone praises those who came first

fiction
edward w pritchard

We often hear the smart, thinking military drones today complaining about the tour of duty they have been assigned. Syria, Sudan, the Japanese outer Islands; each drone stationed there acts like that odious duty was designed just to inconvenience them.

Let us first honor our ancestors; an American  military drone praises those who came first. I am talking about America's first drone; taking a look of it's typical tour of duty might make some of these latest generation American military drones take pause, and maybe appreciate what they really have.

The first American military drone was the Goodyear blimp, commissioned in 1925. During the 1940's the Goodyear blimps did duty along the coasts of America protecting merchant ships during time of war and later in the 1950's during one of the various "cold wars" protecting the American mainland and looking out for subversives. Little known fact, back then human teams and crews piloted the "blimps".

During the 1960's Goodyear blimps were used mostly for advertising and publicity. Cruising and buzzing above the modest town of Akron, Ohio. For excitement the  manned drones would travel to another American city for Monday night Football. The blimp would be a roving camera stand in the sky.

In 2011 near Friedburg Germany, during the transition from human to machine pilots, the human pilot was killed in an explosion but successfully was able to save the lives of his three other human passengers. Of course the blimp was totally destroyed.

Modern unmanned Drones tired of long duties for the US military in far away Countries? Let us first honor our ancestors. The Goodyear blimp silently patroling the skies above America mixing advertising and promotion with stealthful surveillance.
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