Scott's weather squadron will see influx of new Airmen

Published June 13, 2012
By Airman 1st Class Jake Eckhardt
375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- The 15th Operational Weather Squadron at Scott Air Force Base will be receiving six to seven new Airmen every month due to the closure of the only two overseas regional weather forecast training hubs.

After graduating an eight-month technical school at Kessler Air Force Base, Miss., Airmen have to complete 24 months of on-the-job training at one of the four remaining training stations. The four hubs are Barksdale AFB, La., Shaw AFB, S.C., Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., and Scott AFB.

"Within a year, we will show 75 Airmen how to take the skills they learned at Keesler and put it to use through training and real-world scenarios," said Richard Korich, 15th OWS lead trainer.

During the 24 months of training, Airmen must complete a series of technical and soft skills training classes. The initial skills training is for all first term Airmen and initial cross-trainees. It focuses on applying the skills and knowledge learned during technical school and culminates in an operations simulator. Other advance courses such as flight weather briefing, graphics, shift supervisor and senior duty officer combine more advanced technical skills as well as leadership skills used in managing a weather office.

Master Sgt. Thomas Flynn, 15th OWS training flight chief said, "They mainly concentrate on book knowledge in tech school. You really don't get a feel for it until you get to sit in the 'cockpit' of it."

Scott's forecast coverage goes from North Dakota to Maine to Washington D.C. to Kentucky to Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. In doing so, Scott provides resource protection for 153 Department of Defense locations and 19 forecast locations.

"If you were to go on the floor, you would find an Airman who's forecasting for Andrews and another one is forecasting for Minot," said Flynn. "Even though they're here, they are watching and protecting roughly $200 billion worth of assets all across the Air Force."

To accommodate the increase of Airmen, Bldg. 1521 will be renovated. Many of the second floor offices will be converted to classrooms and computers, projectors and pull-down screens will be installed.

Korich said, "The Air Force wants to get Airmen out in the field faster. We are prepared to get them trained faster, so they can get out to other bases and help the career field."
Once the trainees complete their five-level training at one of the training hubs, they are eligible to be sent to other Air Force bases along with a few Army bases. When the Air Force separated from the Army in 1947, it was agreed the Air Force would provide weather support for them.

Flynn said, "They have a lot of responsibility place on them at such a young age. Imagine you are just out of tech school and here comes hail and 50 knot winds about to hit a squadron of F-22s in Langley. You have to call the Langley commander and tell them that you are positive that in two hours they are going to get hail. These are Airmen doing this. Their scope of responsibility is huge."