Our history starts in World War II on the Special Operations side of the house, with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the legacy forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the US Army Special Forces and the US Navy SEALs.
In Europe, the 19th Weather Squadron Parachute Detachment was formed from troops who volunteered to serve as OSS Secret Intelligence (SI) Branch operatives and graduated British Parachute School in Feb of 1944. These troops infiltrated by parachute and boat as small teams into Yugoslavia to gather weather intelligence data from behind enemy lines.
In the Far East, volunteers from the 10th Weather Squadron also attended British Parachute School, this time in India. These troops excelled in specialized training and were selected to serve in the OSS Special Operations (SO) Branch, jumping into Burma and performed special operations there until the end of the war.
On the conventional Airborne side of the house, US Army Air Forces weathermen from the 21st Weather Squadron served as paratroopers and glidermen with the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, jumping and riding gliders into Normandy on D-Day and starting a connection with the Airborne that extends to the present day.
The first weather paratroopers to wear the Grey Beret were the Commando Combat Weather Team paratroopers whose Air Commando unit was activated at Hurlburt Field on January 1963. The achievements of those Air Commandos while operating clandestinely in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War added immensely to the legacy built by our WWII troops and are a shining example for those who wear the Grey Beret today.
Grey Beret positions decreased with the drawdown of forces following the Vietnam War, but increased again in the late 1970s, when SOWTs were assigned to US Army Special Operations units, where their ability to exploit the weather during deliberate planning was skillfully honed and used to maximum effect through the late 1990s.
In the 1990s, the "Crosswalk" of forces occurred within Air Weather Service, which resulted in a split in the Grey Beret community. All SOWT personnel supporting Special Forces, Rangers and Special Ops Aviation being assigned to Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) in Detachments of the newly reactivated 10th Weather Squadron. Those supporting conventional Airborne forces side remained in Air Combat Command, to continue serving proudly with the 82nd Airborne Division and XVIII Airborne Corps.
As a result of the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, the need for high resolution environmental intelligence data increased drastically over time, culminating in Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM, where highly trained and skilled SOWTs once again jumped into combat to perform their unique mission. In May of 2008, a new AFSC, formal pipeline of training and beret crest were created for the SOWT side of the house, which standardized training and allowed for direct recruiting from the civilian population - An important first for the career field.
Expanding use and recognition of SOWT’s value on the battlefield resulted in a new Air Force Specialty Code and training pipeline which subsequently expanded and evolved in 2019 into the 1Z4 Special Reconnaissance (SR) specialty and brought today’s SRs into baseline training parity with the other Air Force Special Warfare career fields.
On the conventional Airborne side, weather paratroopers wearing the Grey Beret are still serving proudly with the 82nd Airborne Division and other US Army paratroop units, as they have since WWII.
Remembering our past, and the unique heritage we share, we band ourselves together to support and promote the achievements of Grey Beret personnel and units throughout history.
As a collective Association and down to each individual, all members of the GBA will strive to fulfill our responsibilities and meet the challenges of the 21st century in the Airborne and Special Operations Arena worldwide – Any Time, Any Place.