15th Operational Weather Squadron

The 15th Operational Weather Squadron (15OWS), based out of Scott AFB, IL, is the largest Operational Weather Squadron in the CONUS that does not have an overseas mission.

Vision

“Warfighter focused, warrior Airmen!”

Mission Statement

“Provide accurate, timely and relevant weather information to ensure safe, effective and efficient military operations.”

“Provide world-class training to build technical skills necessary to support the warfighter.”

Mission

The 15th Operational Weather Squadron is responsible for producing and disseminating mission planning and execution weather analyses, forecasts, and briefings for Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, Guard, Reserve, USSTRATCOM, and USNORTHCOM forces operating at 144 installations/sites in a 24 state region of the northeastern United States, totaling over $150 Billion of assets and over 150,000 personnel including presidential support.

This weather squadron is responsible for base or post forecasting, developing weather products, briefing transient aircrews, and weather warnings for all of their geographical units. Using automatic observing systems located at all military installations and communicating with their combat weather flights, the squadron is able to 'watch' the weather in their entire area of responsibility from one central location.

The Operational Weather Squadron is the first place a newly schooled weather apprentice will report. At the squadron, working along side a seasoned weather professional, the forecaster is trained in all aspects of Air Force meteorology, from pilot briefing to tactical forecasting.

The weather squadron works closely with the combat weather flights they support to ensure a flawless exchange of weather information; to Andrews AFB, Camp David, Dover AFB, Ellsworth AFB, Fort Belvoir, Fort Campbell, Fort Drum, Fort Eustis, Fort Knox, Grand Forks AFB, Grissom ARB, Langley AFB, McGuire AFB, Minot AFB, Offutt AFB, Scott AFB, Westover ARB, and Wright-Patterson AFB.

Personnel and resources

15th Operational Weather Squadron’s manning consists of active duty, reserve, civilian and contract personnel and is located on Scott Air Force Base, IL., Under the 1st Weather Group, Offutt Air Force Base, NE.

Organization

The 15th Operational Weather Squadron is divided into 5 different flights, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Tango. These 5 flights correspond to a specific Area of Operation(AoR), A, B and C flights (WXA, WXB, WXC) are responsible for the Active, and Reserve air stations and specific Army installations. D (WXD) Flight is responsible for Briefing pilots using a common DD Form 175-1, and Air Crew Graphics produce graphic charts. T Flight (WXT) is responsible for training and communications within the 15OWS.

A, B, and C Flight are responsible for the 17 active/reserve bases and 190 Department of Defense units at 144 installations across 24 states. Operations continue 24hour, 7 day-a-week and are divided into 4 cells: West, Central, East and PWW (Point Weather Warning).

D Flight is responsible for producing DD Form 175-1’s that are faxed or e-mailed to 151 flying units across the 24 state AoR, that produces a total of 2500 briefings per month. The Air Crew Graphics section of WXD produce graphic charts or “Forecaster in the loop” (FITL). This section produce Thunderstorms, Turbulence, Icing, Horizontal Weather depiction (HWD) or Fog forecast, Clouds, and Surface Precipitation charts comparable to the National Weather Service's AIRMETS and SIGMETS.

T Flight (WXT) is responsible for 41 servers and 131 workstations valued at approximately $15 million dollars and for training new forecasters.

Lineage

Activations and Deactivations of the 15 Weather Squadron and 15 Operational Weather Squadron

Constituted 15th Weather Squadron on 10 Apr 1942
Activated on 22 Apr 1942
Deactivated on 8 Aug 1959
Activated on 28 Feb 1961
Organized on 8 Jul 1961
Deactivated on 30 Sep 1991
Activated on 1 Jun 1992
Deactivated on 1 Aug 1994
Redesignated 15th Operational Weather Squadron on 8 Jan 1999
Activated on 15 Feb 1999

Duty Assignments

List of duty assignments and parent units from 1942 to present.

McClellan Field, Sacramento Air Depot, California, 22 April 1942 - 16 June 1942

Melbourne, Australia, Allied Air Forces Australia, 16 July 1942 - 2 September 1942

Melbourne, Australia, Fifth Air Force, 2 September 1942 - 8 November 1942

Townsville, Australia, Fifth Air Force, 8 November 1942 - 25 October 1944

Townsville, Australia, FEAF Regional Control and Weather Group (Provisional), 25 October 1944 - 20 September 1945

Townsville, Australia, 1st Weather Group, 20 September 1945 - 20 October 1945

Nichols Field, Philippines, 1st Weather Group, 20 October 1945 - 16 May 1946

Fort William McKinley, Philippines, 1st Weather Group, 16 May 1946 - 1 July 1947

File:15OWSHQ.JPG

Headquarters, 15th Weather Squadron, Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, circa 1954

Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Philippines, 1st Weather Group, 1 July 1947 - 1 June 1948

Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, 1st Weather Group (later the 2100th Air Weather)(No Relationship to previous 1st Weather Group) 1 June 1948 - 23 October 1949

Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, 2143rd Air Weather Wing, 23 October 1949 - 8 February 1954

Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, 1st Weather Wing, 8 February 1954 - 18 February 1957

Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, 10th Weather Group, 18 February 1957 - 8 August 1959

Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina, Military Air Transport Service, 28 February 1961 - 8 July 1961

Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina, 8th Weather Group, 8 July - 30 August 1963

McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, 8th Weather Group, 30 August 1963 - 8 October 1965

McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, 7th Weather Wing, 8 October 1965 - 30 June 1972

Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, 5th Weather Wing, 30 June 1972 - 1 Janurary 1976

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, 7th Weather Wing, 1 Janurary 1976 - 1 June 1980

McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, 7th Weather Wing, 1 June 1980 - 30 September 1991

Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, 15th Operations Group, 1 June 1992 - 1 August 1994

Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, Air Mobility Command Tanker Airlift Control Center, 15 February 1999 - 25 May 2006

Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, 1st Weather Group, 25 May 2006 - Present

File:AFG-061027-002.jpg

15th Operational Weather Squadron Patch

Emblem

Approved on 9 Oct 1943

Blue and yellow are the Air Force colors. Blue alludes to the sky, the primary theater of Air Force operations. Yellow refers to the sun and the excellence required of Air Force personnel. The gauntlet griping a lightning bolt from a thunderstorm cloud represents the unit's ability to maintain a firm forecasting grip on rapidly changing weather and assessment to the wing. The two background colors represent the day and night global capability and mobility of the unit.

History

In the early months of World War II, weather support was unorganized and consisted of small groups of forecasters and observers attached to bombardment groups. In order to provide organization and centralization of weather services, the 15th Weather Squadron was created. The 15th Weather Squadron was established April 10, 1942, and activated at McClellan Field, Calif., April 22. With approximately 235 men, the squadron moved from McClelland Field to a staging area in the International Harvester Building in Oakland, Calif., June 16. Where the Weather Squadron departed for Melbourne, Australia.

In the later part of July and first part of August, the Headquarters in Melbourne, Australia were busy sending men to different weather locations in Australia stretching from Melbourne to Cape York. About half went on a long rail trip north to Townsville, Queensland (approximately 1,000 miles). From their new headquarters location in Townsville, the squadron could better support the network of stations located throughout Australia and New Guinea that were providing reliable weather information to the heavy bombardment groups then actively bombing Japanese installations in Papua and New Britain.

By the end of World War II, more than 719 weathermen were assigned to 21 units in Australia, 23 units in New Guinea, eight units in the Philippines, and 17 units in the East Indies. The weathermen of the 15th WS were daring, courageous, and brave in their attempts to record the weather for the Army Air Forces. Besides the daily job of observing and forecasting the weather, the forecasters and observers attached to bombardment groups accompanied the planes on their missions adding in-flight weather information to the data and weather reports that were being transmitted over the network of weather and communications systems. Some came under attack by the Japanese, suffered the same routine of nerve-wracking bombing raids, ground attacks, disease, and discomfort that other ground and service forces endured. When the Japanese Army's advance was stopped, the men in the 15th WS accompanied US Army troops and services forces to set up new weather stations at each of the islands they took back. In addition, some of the weathermen of the 15th Weather Squadron were selected for special training in guerrilla warfare for duty in the Philippines and in other areas of the Southwest Pacific.

Recent History

The 15th Operational Weather Squadron was formed as part of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force's weather reengineering effort and commenced operations on 19 February 1999. The 125-person regional forecast center reaches full operating capability in June 2001 and provides direct meteorological support to the Tanker Airlift Control Center and total force flying missions in the northeast United States.

The 15th Operational Weather Squadron was the recipient of the United States Air Force Fawbush-Miller Award recognizing the Outstanding Operational Weather Squadron performing the most outstanding weather support, operations, and training. During 2000, the squadron pioneered the use of database and web technologies to produce and disseminate over 3 million forecasts for 126 Air Force and Army active duty, guard and reserve flying units in a 22-state area of responsibility. Their total integration with mission planners re-routing weather restricted C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III missions ensured pinpoint selection of favorable air refueling tracks and airfields resulting in cost avoidance in excess of $12M.

The 15th Operational Weather Squadron, Scott AFB, IL., was the first of the four OWS’s to re-align under the newly formed 1st WXG during a ceremony May 25, 2006. The 26th OWS was realigned at Barksdale AFB, Jun. 22, 2006. Next, was the 25th OWS at Davis-Monthan AFB on July 6, 2006, and the last addition to the team was the 9th OWS which was re-activated on Jul. 20, 2006 at Shaw AFB.

Awards

Service Streams: World War II, & Asiatic-Pacific Theater

2000 Fawbush-Miller Award for Outstanding Air Force Operational Weather Squadron of the year.

12 Outstanding Unit Award for periods: Mar 1956 – Oct 1956; 1 Jul 1972 – 30 Jun 1973; 1 Jul 1973 – 31 Dec 1974; 1 Jul 1977 – 30 Jun 1979; 1 Jun 1992 – 30 Jun 1993; 1 Oct 1993 – 1 Aug 1994; 1 Apr 2000 – 31 Mar 2006.

External links

• 15OWS Factsheet
• 15OWS article
• 15OWS article
• 15WS article
• 15WS/OWS article