Heading into what's forecast to be an extraordinary season, the Air Force’s Hurricane Hunters weather reconnaissance squadron is stretched to meet increasing demands to respond to climate disasters.
Hurricane Hunter airmen prepare before a weather reconnaissance training flight at Keesler Air Force Base.
“There's the cliché it’s like a roller coaster in a car wash,” says Lt. Col. Steven Burton, deputy operations commander with the Hurricane Hunters.Lt. Col. Steven Burton, deputy operations commander, has been with the Hurricane Hunters for 10 years. He says flying into the eye of a hurricane is like"a roller coaster in a car wash."
On McCoy’s order, Staff Sergeant Donny Arseneaux, the load master on the flight, deploys a device called a “All that most up-to- date information on what's going on in the storm system is critical for them to be able to find out how to forecast where the hurricane's going,” McCoy says. “Is it intensifying or is it weakening? Just all the internal structures of what's going on in the storm.”
“In years past, that was the time in which we recovered. We recovered our airplanes. We came home and saw our families,” says Magee. “So we're in a deployed status almost all the time. That's wear and tear on this unit.”
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