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The blue skies over Eastern Europe are only broken by spotted clouds and the slick Black Apaches racing ahead of vehicles and Soldiers. Behind them is a battery of artillery and even farther behind is an Army general, who ordered the operation on the forecast of an Airman that promised sunshine and blue skies.
That Airman is from the 7th Weather Squadron, a weather squadron embedded with the Army providing real-time weather intelligence for Army operations in Europe.
The squadron took time away from their duties to meet at Grafenwohr Training Area, Germany, Sept. 14 through 18 to become better battlefield weather Airmen during Cadre Focus 2015.
“This week was important because we took Airmen, who are weather forecasters stationed with the Army, trained them on tools and techniques for supporting our Army customers and supporting our allies and missions in Eastern Europe,” said 1st Lt. Sean Miller, 7th WS education and training chief.
For more than 10 years, Cadre Focus has ensured Airmen were ready to deploy to locations in the Middle East’s mountains and deserts. With drawdowns and a recent increase in deployments to Eastern Europe, the squadron took a look at its training and made some changes.
“This year we rebooted Cadre Focus all the way to the ground level and rebuilt it around Eastern Europe and Operation Atlantic Resolve, what we are engaged in right now,” said Lt. Col. Geoffrey Dawson, 7th WS commander.
Dawson said that the curriculum of Cadre Focus 2015 had been adjusted to concentrate on issues seen and lessons learned from the field, such as not having enough weather data to forecast and having little knowledge of the countries’ terrain they are operating in.
More than 30 Airmen from around Europe learned and developed land navigation, tactical movements, formations, basic weather forecasting, iridium phones, laser range finders, proper mission and weather briefing and other forecasting challenges for Europe.
“We do (a lot) of the Army weather support mission,” Dawson said. “Everything we are doing here is helping us improve and get better so that we can provide better actionable information to our Army partners.”
The 7th WS supports one of U.S. Army Europe’s biggest missions: Operation Atlantic Resolve.
“As Operation Atlantic Resolve grows, we are adapting and growing with it, and we are poised to make a difference,” said Dawson. “Cadre Focus is totally geared around what we are doing now, which is making a difference from the Baltic States all the way down through the Black Sea.”
So whether they are forecasting in Romania or Latvia, Cadre Focus 2015 enabled the 7th WS to test the squadron’s ability to adapt and overcome new challenges.
However, future iterations of the exercise will be improved and are scheduled to be held twice a year, adding more tools and training to Europe’s only battlefield weather Airmen.
