Late March of 2025, Brayden Padgett (’23) chose a path few Westview graduates have taken: traveling across the world to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There, he sought to help the war effort, serve the people, and protect democracy. Before he was a drone pilot in the 25th Brigade, Padgett worked in Ukraine as a technician, building and testing the drones that would later be used in combat.
“Instead of being in combat and flying the drones, I was setting them up, assembling them, making sure they worked, and then test flying all the drones before we send them to position, and that’s how I learned to fly them,” Padgett said.
Now a drone pilot, Padgett’s work focuses mainly on flying first-person-view (FPV) drones. These drones allow pilots to experience flight from the drone’s perspective through a live video feed.
“Pretty much any target that you’re hitting within maybe 35 kilometers, you’d use an FPV,” Padgett said. “They’re quadcopter drones: they have four motors, four propellers, and a camera on them. I have a controller that I use to fly the drone, and there’s usually a TV screen or a pair of goggles, so I can see what the drone is seeing through the camera.”
The team that performs these types of missions—which typically include the deployment of explosives—is composed of a navigator/radio operator, an engineer, and a pilot. While Padgett pilots the drone, he works with another operator monitoring reconnaissance footage from a separate drone with a better camera to identify targets. Most FPV drones are sent out after a reconnaissance drone spots something.
“The reconnaissance drones are designed to go out, look for things, and when they are eventually out of battery, they come back,” he said. “And then they’ll go back and forth looking for things.”
Padgett’s unit works with two different types of systems.
“We use either radio drones, so you can go out for however far you want as long as there’s a signal, [or] we have fiber optic drones, which [describes] a thin fiber optic wire connected to the drone,” Padgett said. “They operate on a closed loop system—a wire connected to the drone spools out, so it could be 15 kilometers, maybe 25 kilometers long. And the reason we have that is because, with the radio drones, you could be jammed or you could lose signal. If you get jammed, you can’t see what the drone is seeing, or you can’t control it. But with the wire, you can’t get jammed, you can’t lose signal, and the enemy cannot see what your drone is seeing.”
While on position actively fighting the Russians, Padgett and his unit are close to the front lines, about 10 kilometers away, but occasionally even getting as close as two.
Being so close to the front lines, Padgett has experienced many difficulties of Ukrainian life outside of combat.
“In the big cities, it’s just like the U.S.,” Padgett said. “But in the smaller towns, it’s a little less developed. So you don’t have a toilet in the house, hot water sometimes, and the Russians have been attacking the energy infrastructure lately, so sometimes [there’s] no power—but you make do.”
Living in Ukraine has changed Padgett’s views on war compared to when he followed it from the U.S. His decision to serve also comes with stress for him and his family.
“[The war has] become more real,” Padgett said. “You hear about it on the news, and it’s something far away, but once you visit the cities where it’s going on, it’s a very real thing. It definitely does [impact] my family too. Pretty much none of my family has been supportive besides my brother and my sister, but they’ve come around to it because they understand this is something I want to do. I know my mom doesn’t care for it. I think she’s always worried about me, and I don’t want her to wake up to the news that I’m dead. I keep that in mind.”
Padgett acknowledged his unconventional career path, but emphasized that his reasons to serve are motivated by a desire to help, not for money or prestige. Despite the difficulties, the experience has brought new connections for him.
“I’ve met a lot of new people, got a lot of new friends, new brothers,” Padgett said. “It’s just a wonderful culture here, beautiful country. [But], it’s not a good career path because there’s no money to be made here. You can make more money flipping burgers at McDonald’s than I make here in a month. So, career path, no, but if you’re [motivated] to go help people, definitely do what I do.”
Padgett says that even as global attention drifts to other geopolitical tensions, one of his biggest motivations to keep going is the people around him. He believes Americans should keep their eyes on Ukraine.
“I want to protect these people, protect democracy,” Padgett said. “A lot of people have kind of forgotten Ukraine, but war’s still happening. Iran is the hotter debate right now, but people are still dying here. People are still suffering out here. I think that’s important, [and] I think people should know about that. People still fight a good fight out here.”
