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Strategic Repositioning

July 18, 2008

WC-130J “Hurricane Hunter” aircraft from Air Force Reserve Command’s 403rd Wing at Keesler AFB, Miss., have deployed to a forward operating location on St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands to be better positioned to monitor a new storm system brewing east of Barbados that may become a tropical depression, the base announced yesterday. The specially modified C-130s fly directly into the storms, utilizing their weather-monitoring gear to provide valuable, accurate data to National Hurricane Center forecasters. Earlier this month, a Keesler WC-130J tracked Hurricane Berta around Bermuda in the first storm-chase mission of the 2008 season.

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