Veterans Day: Where G2 Weather Intelligence Began
How Desert Storm reshaped my understanding of weather, risk, and decision-making.
Every Veterans Day, I go back to a lesson I learned in combat operations: the weather doesn’t determine outcomes. Decisions do.
I learned that lesson on the Iraqi border with the 101st Airborne Division during Operation Desert Storm. I had just arrived from South Korea—via a short stop at Fort Campbell to get my wife and 3 three very young sons settled—and found myself integrated into the division’s G2 intelligence staff as Chief of Weather Operations.
Our job wasn’t to simply forecast conditions. It was to understand what the weather meant—for aviation, for logistics, and for the timing of the largest helicopter air-assault in modern warfare.
The weather itself was never the intelligence. The choices it enabled were. During Desert Storm, the forecasts we produced determined when aircraft launched, when convoys moved, and when the risks were too high on either side of the line.
That experience became the foundation for G2 Weather Intelligence. Weather isn’t incidental. It’s a strategic variable—if you know how to interpret it and act.
‘Know the enemy, know yourself; your victory will never be endangered. Know the ground, know the weather; your victory will then be total.’ - Sun Tzu
Today, AI-driven systems can apply the same principle to scale it across entire enterprises, predicting the effects of weather on supply chains, consumer demand, public health, and infrastructure.
But the core idea, for me, was forged long before machine learning—inside tents and command posts on the Iraqi border, where outcomes depended on getting the next forecast right.
So this Veterans Day, I’m sharing a piece of that history.
What follows is my original account of Detachment 9, 1690th Weather Group (Provisional)—the Air Force weather team embedded with the 101st Airborne during Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
It’s a record of service and of innovation when the stakes were real. And it marks the beginning of a mission I’ve been pursuing ever since.
I originally wrote this at my headquarters request, on a Z248 desktop—cutting-edge then, antique now. The version below is nearly unchanged, aside from a few clarifications for acronyms and context.
Weather Support to the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) — Operation Desert Shield / Desert Storm
Detachment 9, 1690th Weather Group (Provisional)
A large portion of the weather personnel from Detachment 1, 5th Weather Squadron at Fort Campbell, Kentucky had just returned from a deployment to Fort Bragg, North Carolina in early August 1990.
They had been providing weather support to the “Screaming Eagles” of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) as they fought a notional Persian Gulf adversary during Exercise INTERNAL LOOK ‘90.
Within days of returning home, Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait and threatened the Saudi oil fields.
It was an eerie coincidence.
Three weeks later, 1Lt Tom Lunsford and TSgt Rob Fuller — the OIC and NCOIC of the unit’s combat weather team — arrived at King Fahd International Airport (KFIA) with the division’s Assault Command Post.
They were the first of what would ultimately be a 30-person weather team, later designated Detachment 9, 1690th Weather Group (Provisional), assigned to support the 101st Airborne.
Detachment 9, commanded by Captain Mike McDonald, quickly became:
The largest single Air Force weather unit in theater
The only unit with dedicated (infantry) brigade-level support teams
Because of that role, its personnel were placed in front-line positions almost immediately upon arrival in Saudi Arabia.
Training and Deployment
To prepare for forward operations and the very real threat of combat, deploying members of Detachment 1 (all except outgoing Station Chief MSgt Floyd Parton and A1C Mike Paul) — plus augmentees — underwent rigorous physical and tactical training.
Augmentees arrived with as little as 24 hours’ notice and slept wherever space existed: on couches, floors, even a pool table. When an air-conditioning system failed, flooding the barracks, many lost personal belongings — a harsh preview of the discomfort ahead.
Still, compared with what waited for them in Saudi Arabia, the dayroom was luxury. The full weather team was in theater with the 101st by 11 September 1990.
Life in the Desert
The D-MAIN TOC (Division Main Tactical Operations Center) weather team lived in wooden-floored “Bedouin tents” and worked from an unfinished solid-waste facility.
Air-conditioning was nonexistent; mice and scorpions were not. Showers were outdoor facilities and unheated until mid-December. Latrines were six-holers emptied daily — whether needed or not.
Brigade weather teams experienced even harsher conditions:
No tents or shelters
No regular showers except during brief rotations to Camp Eagle II
“Facilities” consisted of a shovel, (Stars and Stripes) newspaper, and the nearest dune
The Aviation Brigade weather team lived at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Oasis — austere, but slightly better than the infantry teams.
Special Operations Weather Support
Detachment 1 also supported the 5th Special Forces Group. Its Special Operations Weather Team (SOWT) element deployed to King Faud International Airport (KFIA) and (King Khalid Military City) KKMC, living under comparatively stable conditions but enduring SCUD attacks and involvement in high-risk operations.
Just prior to air operations, SrA Gregg Cobb deployed to a classified location with a MARWIN upper-air system. The data he collected was crucial to initial Desert Storm combat sorties.
Transition to Combat Operations
The launch of Desert Storm triggered strategic deployment north to the Iraqi border near the city of Rafha, mostly via C-130. When dense fog forced aircraft to divert, the D-MAIN weather team stepped in.
SSgt Dan Choplick, SrA Scott Peters, and A1C Mike Byars took observations directly from Rafha airfield — relaying critical data to incoming airlift through the Airlift Control Center (ALCE). Their work allowed the air-movement mission to continue.
Front-Line Weather Support in Desert Storm
The 2nd Brigade weather team deployed to Quasimah, Saudi Arabia, in entrenched positions, anticipating a preemptive Iraqi attack. Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, they remained steadfast and mission-focused — demonstrating the selflessness and courage that became the Detachment 9 trademark.
The Largest Air Assault in History
The 101st Airborne launched an assault approximately 60 miles inside Iraq to establish Forward Operating Base (FOB) Cobra — a logistics base enabling deep operations toward the Euphrates.
During Operation Desert Storm, Forward Operating Base (FOB) Cobra was established by the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) on February 24, 1991. This was a major helicopter assault into Iraq to create a secure base for logistics and support future attacks aimed at disrupting Iraqi forces along Highway 8. The base was successfully established after the 101st Airborne secured the area, which was a critical tactical component of the ground campaign to liberate Kuwait.
Operation: FOB Cobra was established as part of the largest air assault in military history, involving over 2,000 soldiers flying 90 kilometers into Iraq.
Objective: The base’s primary mission was to support the helicopter air assault and a future attack to sever Highway 8, cutting off Iraqi forces in the Euphrates River valley.
Establishment: The base was established by the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), which included the 1-327th Infantry Battalion as the lead unit.
Significance: Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf famously described the 101st Airborne’s role, saying, “The Air Force and armor were the thunder of Desert Storm, while the 101st was the lightning,” due to their deep, fast-moving air assault missions.
The assault force included:
SSgt Scott Thompson
SSgt Charlie Walker
Sgt Chuck Lindstrom
A1C Larry Gold
A1C Tim Batson
Foreseeing the need for immediate operational weather in the objective area, Lindstrom and Gold volunteered to insert early via helicopter. Expecting heavy resistance, Sgt Lindstrom volunteered as door gunner — he was previously a Security Policeman and M-60 qualified.
Upon landing, resistance was scattered. The team delivered the first (weather) observations from inside Iraq within 3 hours of the ground war’s start.
Infantry and Aviation Weather Support
2nd Brigade team convoyed to (Forward Operating Base) FOB Viper, northwest of Basra.
Forward Operating Base (FOB) Viper was a location used by the 101st Airborne Division during Operation Desert Storm. It was established west of Basra, Iraq, and served as a base for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team “STRIKE” as they operated against Iraqi forces during the ground war.
3rd Brigade seized (Area of Operations) AO Eagle along the Euphrates and controlled the Basra-Baghdad highway.
“Area of Operations Eagle” during Operation Desert Storm refers to the 101st Airborne Division’s sector in the Euphrates River valley, which was critical for cutting off Iraqi supply lines by blocking Highway 8
When poor weather delayed a major air assault, 101st leadership tasked Captain McDonald’s team with identifying a viable execution window:
Weather cleared exactly when forecast
A dense fog formed within 30 minutes of prediction the following morning
The mission executed flawlessly.
War’s End and Redeployment
Post-ceasefire, the 101st remained in Iraq for three weeks. Aviation and brigade teams consolidated at FOB Cobra. D-MAIN weather remained at TAA Campbell.
As redeployment began, a severe thunderstorm dropped an inch of rain in an hour, flooding the entire field site — later determined to be a dry lakebed (wadi) that fortunately did not flood during combat operations.
Despite the flood, all convoys and flights met schedule.
Det 9 returned to the U.S. 3–4 April 1991, greeted at Fort Campbell by hundreds of cheering family members — including enthusiastic supporters from the Det 1 office who held a large WELCOME HOME AIR FORCE WEATHER banner.
Commander’s Assessment
Capt Mike McDonald summarized:
“This contingency tested the very core and fabric of Army-support weather teams… living in the desert for months under extremely austere conditions quickly separates the wheat from the chaff. I can proudly state: there was very little chaff.”
He noted his team had the distinction of being: “the earliest and furthest north deployed weather personnel in the theater.”
End of Report
Addendum
I arrived in Saudi Arabia on a commercial 747 carrying an artillery unit from the Tennessee National Guard. I was hitching a ride—the only Air Force guy on the flight—surrounded by young soldiers who were loud, eager, and still treating the deployment like an adventure.
Except for the man sitting beside me. He was older, a Vietnam veteran. He didn’t say much. Just stared forward, hands folded, the way someone does when they already understand what the next few months can look like. He didn’t have to tell me anything. I could feel it.
We landed at King Fahd International after dark. The air war was underway, and the airport was blacked out. No cabin lights. No runway lights. The only sound was the engines.
As we taxied in, one of the soldiers up front was handed the intercom. No speech. No joke. He just started singing—Amazing Grace, a cappella. Clear. Steady. Unadorned. The entire plane went silent.
When the lights finally came on for us to disembark, I saw the flight attendant who had given him the microphone wiping tears from her face. The joking had stopped. The energy shifted. Every one of us understood—some for the first time—what we were stepping into.
The veteran beside me just nodded once, as if to say: Now you see it.