Grounded
The title says a great deal regarding what this play is about. The Pilot is grounded from her dream of being a fighter pilot when she gets pregnant and must push paper behind a desk. She is once again grounded when she is told that drones are the future of warfare and she won't be inside a cockpit anymore. And finally, The Pilot is grounded when she is court martialed for disobeying an order to kill the target because the target's daughter would be killed as well.
The Effects of War
This theme is clearly seen in The Pilot. Though she believes that manning a drone is not war, she soon realizes that it causes the same physiological reactions in her body as if she were actually inside the cockpit of a fighter jet. She begins to see reality in gray, the same tone of the screen she stares at day in and day out, even believing her daughter has turned gray and is dying when she isn't. Her daily bouts with going to war for twelve hours and coming home to her family display the hardships of having to live each day with your family after killing people. War, no matter how far away from it one is, is not a thing that someone can easily go home from.
Modern Warfare
The theme of modern warfare in this play is seen in The Pilot manning a drone which hunts down targets overseas and destroys them. In modern warfare, The Pilot is able to leave the battlefield each day and go home to her family; she is stationed in an air conditioned trailer half way around the world where the risk of her being injured or losing her life is zero to none.
