First one dropped at Vance last night, an MQ-9. The kid who got it was told the night before by his flight leadership to avoid the bomb being dropped at the selection show.
It was nice to see all his classmates come up and give him a hug in front of everyone (and it was beyond standing room only), plus give him a few gallons of booze. What was disappointing was seeing some of the leadership playing cheerleader when they must know this guy probably just had all his dreams crushed after all that work. Everyone knows this is business and the way of the future, but we are not there yet, so a little empathy would be nice.
This was a T-1 kid. We heard the -38s were getting one as well, but nothing showed up on the screen for anyone. The folks who got FAIPed and RC-12s (one RC-12 for T-1s and one for -38s) were very happy in comparison. Sad to think that a few years down the road the unmanned stuff will start to simply take away normal pilot slots as we know them today, and only a few lucky hundred per year will even get a chance at a manned cockpit.