Combat weathermen at Balad AB, Iraq, find their work both rewarding and tough, reports Air Force journalist SSgt. Alice Moore. The “biggest challenge,” says MSgt. Michael Dannelly, NCOIC of Balad’s combat weather flight, is dust and sand. “It’s very difficult to predict the intensity and dispersal of the dust storms here,” he explained. Still, he said, “When you get an aircraft on the ground before a dust storm hits it’s a pretty satisfying feeling.”
The Air Force in October carried out a homeland defense mission, with jets including F-16 Fighting Falcons, in Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands to show a base there could safeguard the northern regions.