Chasing Weather Ballons

1963 TDY to 59th Weather Recon, Goodfellow AFB TX. Flying balloon chase out of Sioux Falls SD. The requirement was 3 good balloons a month. High altitude air sampling, 100 to 110 thousand feet. The balloon would launch at 0600 in the morning. Take off with the H-21 and the C-47 command ship. Follow the balloon for 12 hours, and recover the package when it came down.

The package transmitted radio code all day long so we could tell if the blowers came on or not. If they didn’t the command ship could abort the mission.

Most balloons we recovered around Iowa or Wisconsin. When the package came down it was about 10’ x 20’. We had compressors on the chopper and would pump the air into a cylinder and it would be shipped to Cambridge Research Institute.

One got into the jet stream and was past Cape Cod in 12 hours. Easy life, per-diem, living in hotels, landing at any available airport, and signing for fuel.

(Note: This one of several stories that fellow ROTORHEAD Chuck Severns wanted to share with the group. Chuck passed away on 22 Feb 2007 and these stories are being posted in his honor).