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.”
Clearing jungle and laying asphalt in tropical heat may not sound like fun to most people, but it’s a way of life for Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers (RED HORSE) Airmen, who have spent the past year or so restoring World War II-era airfields on the Pacific…