As one of Tinker Air Force Base’s weather forecasters, Staff Sgt. Brandon Feister, is tasked with the important job of keeping the installation informed of current weather conditions, providing advisories in the case of inclement weather, briefing missions of weather conditions and more.
While Feister and the rest of Tinker’s weather forecasters are often out of sight, Feister had the unique chance of sharing his role on base with the community by appearing on KOKH Fox25 to give the morning weather forecast in celebration of the Air Force’s 72nd birthday.
“I was nervous because this wasn’t anything I was used to, but it was great being able to be a part of this in recognition of the Air Force’s 72nd birthday,” Feister said.
Feister, who was assigned to Tinker in 2015 as part of the 72nd Operations Support Squadron, Weather Flight, said that he had chosen this post because of Oklahoma’s reputation for severe and unusual weather.
His and the other forecasters’ observations are what provide the advisories and weather briefings that are sent out across Tinker to help protect the base’s assets in the face of inclement weather.
One of the most significant roles Feister plays as a weather forecaster is keeping each aircraft that takes off from Tinker with a weather brief.
“This part of their pre-flight checklist,” Feister said. “We provide them with a mission execution forecast, which we update regularly about every eight hours, and they’re required to call us to make sure that there have been no updates. Most of the time it’s no, but sometimes it might be something like there are thunderstorms en route or something like that.”
With the need to provide briefings for the 552nd Air Control Wing, the 507th Air Refueling Wing and Tinker’s own test flights, Feister said that he could be providing briefings for aircraft taking off right on base all the way to the other side of the world.
“It’s not just always, ‘Hey, I’m taking off from Tinker,’” Feister said. “It’ll be them taking off from someplace on the other side of the world to get to another place on the other side of the world, and they want us to give them the brief. Because they trust us and we know what their plane limitations are.”
Along with sharing the significance of what it is he and his fellow forecasters are responsible each day, Feister added that it also gave him a new appreciation for what it is Oklahoma’s local forecasters do as part of their job.
“It’s tough because there was no teleprompter like you have for news anchors, it’s just going up there, keeping in mind the weather conditions and informing people about the weather on live TV,” Feister said.
The appearance was part of Tinker’s outreach to share the Air Force’s 72nd birthday, the theme of which has been Frontiers of Blue, and Tinker’s continuing impact on the local community.
With Tinker already having such strong ties with local communities such as Midwest City and Oklahoma City, this media appearance was something that Col. Eddie Taylor, vice commander of the 72nd Air Base Wing, said strengthens those connections.
“I think this is particularly important in Oklahoma City due to the extreme weather that we experience for us to always be on the same page with local weather,” Taylor said. “To have our Tinker weather shop link up with Fox25 is a unique opportunity to share information and allow them to publicize what Tinker does and how we’re very much a city within a city, including our own weather shop and weather forecasters.”
Joining Feister on KOKH was Col. Linda Hoover, 72nd Mission Support Group Commander, who had a chance to share Tinker’s mission and the installation’s impact on the local community.
“We will celebrate the Air Force the entire year under the Frontiers of Blue, which is the 72nd theme,” Hoover said. “To continually promote what it is we do here at Tinker, especially on the Air Force’s birthday, is important to let the community know that we have the Air Force and warfighting capabilities we need, and we are continuously looking to our Airmen as the most valuable assets in providing innovation well past the 21st century.”