Posted on 12/07/2016 5:24:13 AM PST by w1n1
"Those guys were S**t-Hot, and could swing like Tarzan, think like Einstein and climb like Spider-Man," remembers a member of Delta Force, who deployed with SOWTs and Combat Controllers during the fierce early months of the war in Afghanistan.
In order to better wage war in Afghanistan and understand the data so that troops could be best protected, the government sent a number of weathermen to the theater of war.
These weathermen are also known as special operations weather technicians or SOWTs. In fact, these are the only commando forecasters that the Department of Defense has in its employment.
These operatives are tasked with visiting the most hostile and dangerous places in the world and then recovering important meteorological data that ground forces can then act upon once they're brought into duty.
These weathermen are not technically combat-oriented soldiers. Instead, they move into these hostile locations and gather their data. This sounds easy, but it's anything but. If it goes wrong, not only can the operative be captured or killed, but that highly valuable data will be lost forever, compromising any future operations.
These operatives go along with the absolute best in the field. They often team up with Army Rangers, Navy SEALs, and Delta Force.
Before a major operation is going to be conducted, before any boots touch the ground or even get laced up, a SOWT will have to move into the location and give the okay. These truly are the unsung heroes of war, as they’re literally responsible for whether or not an operation will happen. Read the rest of the SOWT story here.
Huh. You amaze me.
Fascinating article, thanks for posting!
They must have trouble walking, carrying all that brass :)
Thank you from a former AF meteorologist. I am not sure how organized of a group we had in VietNam,I was in Saigon in charge of a remote weather satellite site. But I know of one, Maj Keith Grimes whom I briefed about our satellite coverage before the Son Tay POW raid. He went with it. They didn’t get to the POWs in time but killed some enemy anyway.
Thank you from a former AF meteorologist. I am not sure how organized of a group we had in VietNam,I was in Saigon in charge of a remote weather satellite site. But I know of one, Maj Keith Grimes whom I briefed about our satellite coverage before the Son Tay POW raid. He went with it. They didn’t get to the POWs in time but killed some enemy anyway.
Heh.
An historical version of this same story would be the weather stations set up in China to predict weather for bombing Japan in WW2.
In Danger’s Path bump.
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