WEBVTT

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- Without the knowledge of upcoming weather events,

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entire missions can be planned for and basically

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just thrown away if the weather's not taken into account.

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They have their own thresholds for every asset

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they have with the Army.

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Like Rotary has different thresholds for a certain amount

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of winds where they can take off or land.

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And so, I mean...

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It's just a huge factor.

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Here at NTC, they were planning on doing an air assault,

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but due to the high winds,

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they had to cancel the air assault.

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Forecasting in hostile environments

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with poor communications is a big challenge

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for us because we rely so heavily on forecasting

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tools and models that are online.

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Weather is extremely important to the Army.

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Basically, they don't have their own dedicated

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weather personnel, we have to provide it to them.

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That also comes with its own challenges.

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Pretty much have to integrate as fully as we can

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with the Army, so we're sent on exercises.

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Any exercises they go on, we go on.

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Any training that they do, we do.

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It's quite a bit different,

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but basically it feels almost like

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we are in the Army at times.

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- The biggest part of the job

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is resource protection, all right?

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So you're even a little bit suspicious that you might

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get these conditions that will negatively impact

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the entire base, all of the personnel,

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the Army will take you very seriously

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and they'll close down a base for days at a time,

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dependent upon on your forecast.

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And that's millions of dollars that you either

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saved or wasted if you're right or wrong.

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Postponing or delaying a mission

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can even cause it to be canceled

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or waste X amount of dollars on fuel alone.

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Man hours and then sometimes missions don't even go

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if they're delayed too long.

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So coming out here, I wasn't too sure

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what to expect and there was a lot of friction

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between us and the people who we were working with.

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Once we ID those spots and work together,

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I've been able to integrate myself in a lot of places

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that I didn't think I belonged to.

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So if I ever go downrange with another unit like this,

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this will be a very important piece of experience

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to drop back on and insert myself

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into more mission planning.