Air Force Association award for weather school

Published Feb. 18, 2009
By Susan Griggs
81st Training Wing Public Affairs

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, BILOXI, MISS. -- The 335th Training Squadrons weather training flight has been selected to receive the Air Force Association's Theodore Von Karman Award for 2008.

The annual award honors the most outstanding contribution to national defense in the field of science and engineering.

It's named for the renowned Hungarian-American aerodynamacist and visionary strategic planner, who, together with Gen. Henry "Hap" Arnold, forged modern Air Force research and development.

As the Department of Defense's only weather training schoolhouse, the flight conducted nine major course rewrites and validations using the latest tools and concepts in weather forecasting technology.

In addition, Keesler's weather training team incorporated Joint Environmental Toolkit technology into all aspects of weather forecasting, greatly enhancing student training.

The flight, commanded by Maj. Barry Hunte, researched, proposed and developed a plan to incorporate e-Book technology into two courses, eliminating more than 20,000 pages of documents and saving the Air Force $10,000 dollars each year in printing costs.

Additionally, the flight was handpicked to serve as experts and played a vital role in the success of six major Air Force weather forecasting projects.