Send in the Weathermen

[knocker]

Quite an interesting article

 

 

On a moonless night in October 2001, an American helicopter lifted off from an airbase in Uzbekistan, banking south on a covert mission into Afghanistan. Inside was one of America’s most elite and unknown special operators, hand-selected for a job so important that the wider war on terror hinged on its success.

 

In New York and Washington, D.C., the funerals continued. Families gave up hope of a miracle rescue in the rubble of the World Trade Center and Pentagon. But if this soldier succeeded he would never shoot his gun and no one outside the military would know his work.

 

He was a weatherman.

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/pages/weathermen?cid=par-rightmodule

[Mokidugway]

Interesting article .....

[knocker]

Although not quite so dramatic it should perhaps be noted that the METO have been running a Mobile Met Unit for fifty years.

 

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafscampton/aboutus/mobile_met_unit.cfm

 

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/defence/mmu

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Meteorological_Unit

[Cakie]

Thanks for finding those links Knocker, I was looking for some to show the UK side of things.

The work they do "in theatre" (what you might call an action zone) can make or break an operation. It certainly gives the the opportunity to exploit the weather conditions to best suit what they are trying to achieve. The MMU are very much the unsung heros of military operations.