Photo By Staff Sgt. Nick Wilson | U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Scott, Air Component Command combined weather...... read more read more
OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea -- As combined forces continue to pound through Key Resolve 16, they train to respond to any potential event on the peninsula. One of the key assets to ensuring training success is the weather department.
The 607th Weather Squadron’s responsibility is to provide the weather picture for the airspace to ensure safety of aircrew, passengers and cargo.
“It’s all about the fight,” said Tech Sgt. Jerrimy Erskine, non-commissioned officer in charge of the weather specialty team. “In a joint service, combined force effort, we work with U.S. civilians and forecasters from the Republic of Korea Air Force to create a common forecast for the peninsula and the exercised fight during Key Resolve 16.”
Not only does this ensure aircraft are safe, but it also helps provide a clear description of what commanders can expect in days to come, which in turn helps them make decisions on which strategy to make to successfully employ munitions and defeat the enemy.
“Our job requires quick action, especially in the AOC, because if a target or mission pops up, we have a very limited amount of time to provide the forecast,” Erskine said. “It can be stressful sometimes if there is a lot going on at once.”
To alleviate that stress and ensure commanders get that speedy response they need, communication comes into play.
“We ensure we have good communication not only with ourselves, but also with other units,” Erskine said. “That comes back to confirming that everyone is on the same page and ensuring that we establish that good relationship with our ROKAF partners.”
A solid relationship with host-nation counterparts helps ensure everything briefed to air component commanders is the same between the Republic of Korea and the U.S.
“The constant dissemination of information pretty much alleviates any communication barriers we may have,” Erskine said. “Obviously, there is a language barrier sometimes, but for the most part, all of the Koreans we work with speak very good English.”
One thing that helps with the robust working relationship U.S. Airmen have with their Korean allies is the fact that both sides learned their jobs in the same place.
“All of the ROKAF forecasters go to the U.S. weather technical school,” Erskine said. “We work jointly all the time during both real world and exercise scenarios.”
An ability to smoothly work with ROKAF comrades helps weather Airmen get out timely and accurate information.
“It helps us keep continuity on our forecast and be readily available at all times,” Erskine said. “We get calls from literally everyone.”
Being readily available is necessary when there are multiple divisions of the air operations center relying on Airmen to give them the information they need to do their jobs.
“For instance, the combat operations floor is focused on terrestrial weather, which consists of clouds, rain and visibility information that would impact aircraft, weapons systems and basic operations in general,” Erskine said. “Then you’ve got the strategy division and the plans division, who are making the bigger plan. They need longer range forecasting.”
The longer range forecasting requires weather forecasters to give out information for weather three to seven days out.
| Date Taken: | 03.14.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 03.13.2016 21:59 |
| Story ID: | 192204 |
| Location: | APO, AP, KR |
| Web Views: | 214 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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