Our history starts in World War II with the US Army Air Forces weathermen who served as conventional paratroopers with the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and as Secret Intelligence (SI) and Operational Group (OG) Operatives performing special operations with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Our Airborne weather troops jumped and rode gliders into Normandy, while our OSS troops completed specialized training and infiltrated by parachute and boat as small teams into Burma and Yugoslavia to gather weather intelligence data from behind enemy lines.
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.
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.
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.