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Weather squadron makes grade, wins shaving wager

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Mike Meares
  • Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii --  Hard work, long hours and a grueling inspection made a few people lose some hair.

The 17th Operational Weather Squadron recently completed a Standardization and Evaluation Program for Weather Operations, or SEPWO, inspection where they scored 214 out of a possible 215 points, for a 99.53 percent passing score. It took the highest score among six active operational weather squadrons in the Air Force to force several members to make good on a wager, where more than 75 years of mustache growth came to a sharp end.

Even the commander lost his hair.

"If you have ownership, you want it to succeed," said Lt. Col. Jason Patla, 17th OWS commander. "It's not just, 'I'm going to do my J.O.B. and then go home.' It's, 'I'm going to do my J.O.B. because I want to succeed and I want our unit to succeed.' That is what I really saw and what I'm most proud of."

The 17th OWS prides themselves in providing highly accurate, timely and relevant environmental situational awareness as well as mission tailored, operational and tactical level meteorological, oceanographic, volcanic ash and space environment products to Air Force, Navy and Army commanders operating in U.S. Pacific Command.

They are responsible for producing and disseminating mission planning and execution weather analyses, terminal aerodrome forecasts, and briefings for Department of Defense forces operating at 121 installations and sites encompassing more 113 million square miles within the Pacific theater of operations.

As one of only six operational weather squadrons in the Air Force, they are most concerned with their customers, covering the entire Pacific and Indian Ocean regions from the east coast of Africa to the west coast of the Americas, and the poles stretching from the far north to the deep south.

They also work with the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, located on Pearl Harbor, to monitor, analyze, and forecasts tropical cyclone formation, development, and movement year round. Its area of responsibility covers more than 88 percent of the world's tropical cyclone activity.

"The bottom line is quality of product to the warfighter," said Keith Headland, a retired master sergeant in charge of the squadron's standardization and evaluation flight. "We truly far exceed quality that is going out to the warfighter everyday."

Professional meteorologist and weather technicians forecast weather around the clock ensuring continuous monitoring of any terrestrial and space weather activity. A minor shift in the weather can create a bad day for someone in a remote outpost.

"It's absolutely amazing," Patla said. "Sometimes all it takes is a 10-degree shift in winds to funnel hurricane force winds down a mountain, whereas, they would otherwise be getting 10 to 15 knot winds. You've constantly got to be on the ball."

For their inspection, they were graded on 94 total areas, 35 performance tasks and 59 areas of compliance based on updated Air Force instructions. Even during 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week operations, members of the joint Air Force and Navy weather squadron spent more than 1,000 hours in preparation for the inspection and performed more than 600 performance evaluations. The SEPWO took a close look at the weather team's processes, procedures and mission support effectiveness. With a new set of AFI's, Air Force manuals and new inspection processes, the squadron needed to define how they were going to do business in a short amount of time.

"When this happened, it gave us a chance to really say, 'you know, meeting standards in one thing,'" said Patla. "'But, exceeding them is really what our (Pacific Command) supported units deserve."'

And it wasn't easy for them.

"When you're working a lot of overtime and in everybody's face, morale is going to go down," Headland said. "The squadron really pulled together as a team. When you're talking about 150 folks, it's a pretty tall order and tough to do."

It was such a tall order, Patla, Headland and several others placed a wager with the squadron. If they were to obtain a score of 97 or higher, the squadron barbershop would be open for business. More than 75 years of continuous mustache growth that would make Sam Elliott, Burt Reynolds or Tom Selleck jealous was on the line. The commander's full head of hair was also in the mix.

"I think my mustache was older than three-quarters of the squadron," said Headland, who last shaved his upper lip in April 1981. "We were trying hard, prepping hard and working hard. I'm really happy that we got the 99.5 score, but I wasn't very happy about letting them shave off my mustache."

The last time he shaved, the term "internet" was first mentioned as a possibility and a gallon of gasoline was $1.25. They made the "un-obtainable" bet thinking it was a safe one, and a low 90s score was more realistic.

"The barbershop was open," Patla said, who had his head shaved by the lowest ranking Airmen. "It was difficult because I'm not a short hair guy, but it'll grow back."

As the squadron looks back on a successful inspection, they begin to look forward to their new goal of repeating as the Air Force Operation Weather Squadron of the Year.