Photo By Ryan Labadens | Lt. Col. Jon Talbot, 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron "Hurricane Hunters" chief...... read more read more
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KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, MISS. -- (This article is the initial piece of a series featuring personal encounters of Air Force Reservists of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron "Hurricane Hunters". The Hurricane Hunters are the only Department of Defense organization who routinely flies into hurricanes to collect weather data for the National Hurricane Center's tropical cyclone forecasts.)
For Lt. Col. Jonathan Talbot, flying through storms and gathering forecast data for the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla., has been his way of life for more than two decades.
These days, it takes some pretty rough weather to rattle Talbot, senior aerial reconnaissance weather officer with the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron Hurricane Hunters, but one particular storm flights sticks out in his mind as his worst "Oh My God!" moment.
"Everyone in the squadron who has been working here for more than a couple of years has a moment in this job where they can distinctly look back and identify a storm that gave them pause to consider a different career," Talbot declared.
Talbot had only been flying with the squadron for a couple of years when he was tasked to fly into Hurricane Luis in 1995.
The Hunters had been flying out of their forward operating area on the U.S. Virgin Islands at the Henry Rohlsen Airport in St. Croix. Squadron members had been warned that the forecast models, fed by the information they were gathering in the Atlantic, projected Luis' path to hit St. Croix.
The Hunters decided to get out of St. Croix by conducting a hurricane evacuation maneuver and moving operations to Barbados to complete future sorties.
"We entered into Luis just north of Puerto Rico since we were flying out of Barbados," said Talbot.
As the Hunters got closer to penetrating the storm's eyewall, Talbot began to notice something was amiss.
"As we were getting closer to the eyewall, the aircraft began shaking very badly," said Talbot. "I remember being worried that rivets were going to start coming loose because of the intense vibrations. I remember hoping that the plane was going to hold together because I had never experienced conditions as violent as that before."
The shaking went on for about a minute, but once the crew penetrated into the eye of the storm, things became calm again. Although crew members found peaceful refuge in the eye, they had to cross through some rough weather to punch their way back out.
"It really beat us up, and we were looking for a way to get back out of the wall that wouldn't cause so much turbulence," Talbot explained. "We were looking for a quieter spot, but we were having a tough time finding one."
On the way back out of the eyewall, the WC-130H was again put to the test with violent shaking, but the crew piloted away from the dangerous area to safety.
Once the crew made it back on the ground to their forward-deployed area, they could breathe a sigh of relief.
"I remember everyone was so happy to be back on the ground," said Talbot. "For a little while, I thought to myself, 'This is kinda stupid. What are we doing this for?'"
Talbot's dedication to his mission was proven by his determination to gather the vital data for the National Hurricane Center's forecast models during multiple passes through the storm.
By the time Luis made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in Newfoundland, Canada, it had caused catastrophic damage in Antigua, Barbuda, St. Barthelemy, St. Martin and Anguilla as a Category 4 hurricane. The storm caused 19 deaths and left 70,000 homeless, with more than $3 billion in damages.
Even though Luis shook him up near the beginning of his career as a hurricane hunter, Talbot is now in his 26th year of flying through the most powerful storms Mother Nature can throw at him. He currently mentors 19 other weather officers in the squadron.
| Date Taken: | 06.01.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 12.30.2016 10:21 |
| Story ID: | 219021 |
| Location: | KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, MISSISSIPPI, US |
| Web Views: | 72 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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