During the cold war, the US military had lots of forward operating bases. Thus, crew rest and flight durations were generally not much of a concern. For those non-military the rules were pretty straight forward, you got 12 hours off before each flight and the flights generally were never longer than 12 hours and 16 hour duty day.

Later the military closed lots of forward bases and created the requirement for crews to operate from bases further away. Thus, flight durations started going up and duty days longer. Now, some crews see duty days in excess of 24 hours and occasionally flights as long as 42 hours.

The only way they are able to accomplish these missions/requirements is with the controlled use of prescription drugs.

The AF has lots of experience with Ambien and it works very well. However the real concern is, it worked so well it has allowed the commanders to demand and receive more productivity from their troops.

I fully support the FAA allowing the use for civilian flying (they currently allow the use up to 36 hours prior to a flight), however watch out for the slippery slope.