O
N HER JOURNEY TO BECOME A HURRICANE HUNTER
PILOT, Cmdr. Catherine “Cathy” Martin first learned to avoid storms and later adjusted to flying head-on into red, turbulent patches on her radar.
“That first flight, it’s intimidat-
ing,” she says. “It’s not something you’re used to.” Although she was surrounded by
experienced pilots and armed with the best advice and training, her first flight through Tropical Storm Ana and later Hurricane Bill still was a test. “It’s the unknown,” she says. “You don’t know what the turbu- lence is going to be like. You can hear all day from people ... but you can never really know until you’re there. The fear of the unknown is what I felt on my first flight.” As a National Oceanic and Atmo- spheric Administration (NOAA) of- ficer, Martin relies on a combination
it comes to using environmental data to strengthen the economy, protect natural resources, and even save lives.
Supporting infrastructure In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law a bill recognizing the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS) as a commissioned ser- vice. At the time, the agency had for 110 years continuously monitored some of the most important assets of a growing nation: coasts, waterways, and (as of 1878) the interior. While officers still command boats charting coastlines and testing ocean depths, NOAA now encompasses many com- plementary fields of environmental
“The NOAA Corps mission has expanded and changed as the nation’s need for environmental intelligence has grown.” – Rear Adm. David A. Score, NOAA
of knowledge (she studied meteor- ology in college), instinct, and train- ing to keep personnel and equipment safe so the agency’s scientists can provide accurate weather forecasts and good meteorological data, con- duct ocean surveys, and collect data from space. This has spelled success for the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps, which this month celebrates 100 years supporting the nation. It’s been a century of technologi- cal and scientific advances, giving the nation and the world a leg up when
52 MILITARY OFFICER MAY 2017
science, from meteorology to mea- suring coral reef health. “The NOAA Corps mission has ex- panded and changed as the nation’s need for environmental intelligence has grown,” says Rear Adm. David A. Score, director of the NOAA Corps and NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations. “The original mission, seafloor and coastal map- ping, is still vital to the economic and environmental health and prosperity of our nation, as well as to national security and public safety. But there
are many more NOAA missions sup- ported by NOAA Corps officers that are equally vital — from piloting hur- ricane hunter aircraft to commanding ships that support the management of our nation’s marine fisheries.” NOAA Corps officers still can technically be transferred into an armed service during wartime, but their commissioned status mainly recognizes their readiness, safety, professionalism, and mobility. By relying on a highly educated group of officers rotating among various billets and staying trained to ensure safety on potentially hazardous mis- sions, NOAA civilians are able to focus on science. Capt. Albert “Skip” Theberge, a
retired NOAA commanding officer who works for the NOAA Central Library, finds that while the mission varies from billet to billet, effective coordination with various parties is a constant theme. “They have to be able to commu- nicate with both the wage mariners on our ships and also, depending on the nature of the ship, be able to communicate with [other scien- tists],” Theberge adds. “So they have to know this whole realm. The other thing [is], they have to be cognizant of all the rules and regulations gov- erning NOAA; they have to be able to communicate with procurement, with human resources. … They’re op- erating within a number of different realms and have to be able to com- municate within all.” When Capt. Kurt Zegowitz, NOAA, serves aboard fisheries
PHOTO: NOAA
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