The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-09-29
FRONT-LTNE WEATHER MEN SAVE DOLLARS AND LIVES
By ALLEN ', GREEN NEA Correspondent

WaSnMgton. sept @SS-Deuoers Ately. against expert advice that his bomber would he ripped to Spllnters, col, Floyd B, Wood drove into the teeth ot a hurricanes so fierce that ik battered an American destroyer to her death and tiattened houses,
 Colonel Wood, S6syear-old deputy chief of the Army Air Forces weather service, had maintained Q S6~hour vigil over his weather charts AS the hurricane howled up the At lantic coast, Then, with two other meteOrological ofncerS. he took on in e Douglas A>20 Havoc to inter- cept it of the Virginia eapes,
 In a AS-minute fight the Colonel plNrced to the approximate center of the hurricane and returned to diSproVe several textbook ideas on the structure of such storms, More important American pilots now know that . large plane can m an probability safely negotiate Q hurricane, although 1t is not rec, commended as standard practice" acc cordMg to the Colonel,
 INERT TONE0RRoW'S STORMS
 His feat, despite its dNrinf, Is but one of the achievements ehalEed up by the Service in the important task of winning the war by "at- fording the best possible weather service Go all operations of the U, s, Army wherever they may be lo- eAted,"
 m preparation for the Eighth Air Forces laundering raids on Germany, specially-eQuipped weath- or planes, including Flying Fort reSSeS, hy north and east rom Eng. land along the storm tracks to meet tomorrow'S weather, Trained mete~ orologlSts examine instruments which make 0 continuous record or the temperature, pressure, humidity and air Speed-pluS certain cleo. tronie devices, details or whlen cannot be revealed-and report back by radio.
 On the other side of the world wherc Army pilots keep ChinaS lifeline intact by daily flights over thN trNacherous, cloud-veiled Burma India theater is credited where sta~ taons are operating in every e%' trNMN ot climate from Steamins iungleS to freezing mountain tops A weather offieer in the China. Burma. India theater is credited with saving thousands of dollars by enabling medium bomoers 70 make n missions over Burma with the gasoline formerly consumed tn 10, though ingenious utilization ot NtIMoSpheric conditions, Acting on his forecasts, one group was able to make more than 800 raids over Burma during the monsoon season with less than e three per cent weather failure,
 CITED FOR BRAVERY
 Mobile weather units, trucks and trailerS packed with instru. ments, roll out of landing craft Along with the invasion forces, A miniature mobile station in Q Ieep landed on sicily, furnished weather information for Allied planes and ground forces driving back the Germans A few months laAar, the crew and 1eep was flown No SAlerno and, after several nar- row escapes from eounter-attaek- lMg Germans, followed the Allies un thS Italian peninsula, Three members of the jeep'S vrew Of wNathermen received the Silver Star for their bravery.
 The Arnay'S weatherne nhaVe MlfferNd their share of casualties Five were killed at Pearl Haroor hy the JapS, A weather otiieer drowned in the surf off North Africa. A flying colonel died from dNiaydratlen and heat proStrauon while trying to make his way across the Egyptian Desert after crashing A total of SS casualties were re- norted in the first two years of war,
 The Weather Service which has expanded s,oo0 per cent since the war, turned out Q total of ss,000 forecasts last year, Of these, SSS were long.range forecasts ranging from a hours to 30 days, plus in tensive climatic studies based on years of weatehr data reduced to punch cards and speedy digested and tahulated by electric machines,
 Its ultimate goal, expressed oS a Pacific weather otiioer, is "to open a weather station on top of the Em- peror'S palace in Tokyo"