Page 5 - Desert Lightning News 12-4-15

Desert Lightning News
Forecasting for 81 DoD locations
Airman Basic Nathan H. Barbour
355th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE,
Ariz. -- The 25th Operational Weather Squad-
ron works 24 hours a day, seven days a week to
keep military aircraft flying and personnel safe.
The primary mission of the squadron is to fore-
cast for 81 Department of Defense locations in the
Western U.S. They provide support to Air Force
and Army installations, as well as point locations.
“We do all the official forecasts that pilots
can fly off of and we also do any special notices,
weather watches, warnings and advisories,” said
U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Noah Vaughan,
25th OWS bravo flight chief.
The 25th OWS is one of six weather squad-
rons that are based in different locations around
the world and, together, they are responsible for
forecasting across the entire globe. To accomplish
their mission, 25th OWS Airmen must be timely,
relevant, accurate and consistent at all times.
“Timely means we are forecasting in enough
time to give decision makers or operators the
ability to determine when they are going to fly
and what they are going to fly,” said Maj. Steven
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Lipinski, 25th OWS operations officer. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Basic Nathan H. Barbour)
Airmen complete three 30-hour forecasts daily
Senior Airmen James Kim and Airman 1st Class Ariel Hawkins,
while continuously watching for approaching weather 25th Operational Weather Squadron weather forecasters,
threats. The 25th OWS operations floor is divided monitor weather conditions at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base,
into north, south and central sections, forecasting the Ariz., Oct. 29. The 25th OWS operations floor is divided into
weather for the Western part of the Continental U.S. north, south and central sections, forecasting the weather for
the Western part of the Continental U.S.
Because the squadron monitors such a wide
variety of locations, it is extremely important to Tech. Sgt. Bradley Rector, 25th OWS NCO in
provide specific information that is relevant to charge of Southern Command operations. “You’re
the missions at hand. talking about mission watching from the location
in which they’re leaving from to their arrival point
“Our guys forecasting for these specific loca- and we have to be accurate all the way through.”
tions have to be very aware of the mission and
what’s going on that day and how all these weath- Airmen must also be consistent with their
er effects are going to play into mission planning,” forecasts to ensure the success of the mission.
Vaughan said. “At the end of the day we’re safety
guys. We put the information out there so the de- “You don’t just want to be accurate or relevant
cision makers and planners can integrate that bit or timely you need to be able to repeat that suc-
of information into the military decision making cess day in day out; a lot of that has to do with
process and operational risk management.” the great training that we do here,” said Lipinski.
Once the information is determined as rel-
evant, Airmen must make sure that all informa-
tion will be accurate for all types of missions.
“We’re also talking about missile squadrons.
A lot of times they do maintenance and they will
have to take the missile out of the ground and then
put it onto a truck and take it back 150 miles.” said