Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-06-01
Weather Enters Big Business Field of
Worlds Armies, Navy, Trade and Farms
BY WALTER A. SHEAD
WNU Staff Correspondent.

"NO Guam NOIICSpOuuCuts
There is one thing in which the
nations farmers and our mill
tary leaders have a common
stake an element which can
upset the most carefully laid
military plans and the most
meticulously planned agricul-
tural program-the weather.
The farmers success in plant
ing and harvesting and Ameri-
can combat success in COM
bined land : sea air operations
can come only through close OBJ
servance of the scientific pre-
dictions of the weatherman. For
the weather is often used as a
military weapon by our military
strategists, and our farmers are
dependent upon the vagaries of
the weather to harvest a record
production, or a crop failure.
No military operation-whether it
is a minor sortie by group of fight
ers, bombing mission on an enemy
city, naval bombardment of a Jap
island, ground attack in China, or
large scale invasion-is never blue
printed unless latest weather infor-
nation is first consulted. Success of
an attack is ofttimes dependent upon
clear weather, though American
forces have profitably exploited bad
weather to make offensive strikes
against the enemy.
Our military strategists were
quick to recognize the impor-
lance of accurate meteorological
data, and SO have greatly ex-
banded the network of observa-
ton posts, trained thousands of
officers and enlisted men and
adopted new chronological de-
vices to guarantee reliable FORE
casts.
Together, the AAF, the navy and
the U. S. Weather bureau weather
systems form a vast network of
information, research, observation
and forecasting reaching from the
United States to all parts of the
world. Observation units vary in
size from two men occupying hut
on an isolated Atlantic or Pacific
isle to a major research station with
full staff of specialists.
The AAF maintains several major
research centers and more than
1000 observation and forecasting
stations reaching from the Arctic to
the Antarctic, and its weather report
system spreads and moves as rapid
~ as the fighting fronts. The nerve
center of this vast, scattered wealth
er force is in the Pentagon build
ing in Washington where approx
mately so persons watch the wealth.
err in all regions of the world and
prepare long-range forecasts and
special studies to guide our high
strategy planners.
Navy Maintains Stations.
The navy maintains about 1,4OO
observation and forecasting sta
tons, including IA major weather
"centrals." In some instances
astrological units may be aboard
fagships or aircraft carriers, or on
advanced island bases and the units
may consist of one man on small
ship or full Pledged Central with
full complement of 100 or more
officers and men.
How the navy weather bureaus
have grown since 1910 may be seen
by the fact that in that year navy
aerology under the bureau of aero
nautics consisted of less than 200 Of
ficers and men in about so units,
whereas today the personnel totals
about $500 officers and men as
signed to the l,400 units. The AAF
staff of weather specialists numbers
10000 officers and men, and the
force of observers alone has grown
from so to 10000.
Service provided by these
thousands of forecasters in