Fort Bragg Soldier charged with beating toddler, infant

Soldier charged with beating toddler, infant

Raeford, N.C. — A Fort Bragg paratrooper has been charged with beating his two young children, including one that is 7 weeks old, authorities said Tuesday.

Sgt. Alex Wayne Mages, 22, of 106 Dotson Drive, was charged with one count each of felony child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury, felony child abuse inflicting serious injury and felony assault with a deadly weapon. He was being held Tuesday in the Hoke County Jail under a $150,000 secured bond.


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Soldier charged with beating toddler, infant

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Mages was an unmanned drone pilot. Before you think that there is no chance he was affected by this, read this and understand there is a chance it was because he served. Don't assume anything yet.

Remote-control warriors suffer war stress too
by Scott Lindlaw / Associated Press
Thursday August 07, 2008, 3:45 PM



MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, Calif. -- Working in an air-conditioned trailer nicknamed the Dumpster, Predator pilots peer into Iraq through a bank of computers, operating by remote-control the drone via keyboard and chat software -- and occasionally unleashing missiles on enemy fighters.


When their eight-hour shifts are done, they merge onto the highway and blend into the Southern California suburbs.

For the growing number of air national guardsmen involved in unmanned combat missions, it can be a whiplashing daily transition, and one that is taking a toll on a few of them.

"When pilots finish their job sitting in the ground control station, they climb out of that thing, hop in their car and then they drive home, and they have just been basically at war," said Col. Albert K. Aimar, commander of the 163rd Reconnaissance Wing here.

A Predator's video cameras are powerful enough to allow an operator to distinguish between a man and a woman, and between different weapons on the ground, unit commanders say. While the cameras' resolution is generally not high enough to make out faces, it is sharp, they say.

Aimar, a weapons system operator on F-4 fighters in the 1970s, said flying unmanned Predator drones in combat can weigh on a pilot and on the sensor operators who control cameras and weapons systems.

"When you come in (with a fighter) at 500-600 mph, drop a 500-pound bomb and then fly away, you don't see what happens," said Aimar, who holds a bachelor's degree in psychology. "Now you watch it all the way to impact, and I mean it's very vivid, it's right there and personal. So it does stay in people's minds for a long time."

The 163rd has called in a full-time chaplain and has enlisted the services of psychologists and psychiatrists to help ease the mental strain from this remote-controlled fighting, Aimar said.

"We've been doing this for two years now, and we're pretty adaptable," Aimar said. But, he said, "It's causing some family issues, some relationship issues. It's just not something we ever had to deal with."

Similarly, chaplains have been brought on at Predator bases in Texas, Arizona and Nevada.
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http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2008/08
/remotecontrol_warriors_suffer.html