Special Operations Weather Technician | Travis Sanford | Ep. 253

[@SSgtSki]

Travis held his own that first firefight. It was an honor to have you on the team. Semper Fi #MSOT8222

[@sarah6478]

These unknown histories need to be recorded. Many people don’t go the book route so this is a great way to capture them.

[@jayklink851]

One of my professors, who was a brilliant guy (spoke Arabic and Farsi), worked for the DOD (and several Ivy League schools) before he landed a tenure-track job at the university. Basically, he'd create studies and ran statistical annalists to help the military counter guerillas and/or terrorists. The weather, is one, if not thee, most important variable when it comes to predicting combat patterns in Afghanistan. Everything from planting IEDs, large-scale coordinated Taliban "infantry" attacks, to mortars is almost always correlated with certain weather patterns.

[@jamesalexander7449]

We had a SOWT and the Zulu would ask for daily barometric pressure updates. Will was a stud and handled it well

[@jim99west46]

AF has some of the most badass military tourists.

[@demonhanzohattori]

SOWTs are so rare to see, I've spent a year in Lackland and never once saw that grey beret, even after being around the SpecOps schoolhouses on the other side of base in PJ Indoc.

[@ryanjones4917]

Very cool interview, seems like a really chill guy. AFSOC definitely has some intense training across the board.

[@Lizardforce]

Love hearing all these story’s in this format!

[@afweath05]

Nice to see this guy again. I was with him in AF weather tech school with him back in Keesler in 2005. We went through hurricane Katrina together on base.

[@paulstrathern4309]

Jesus Christ... I never realized Keesler got hid during Katrina. I was there in '99 and even with no hurricane they had these monster size mosquitos and aggressive horseflies that would be all over you if you used too much deodorant. I can't even imagine the aftermath of a hurricane there. Did they still have down Fridays in '05?

[@afweath05]

@@paulstrathern4309 Keesler was pretty much within 20 miles east of the eye of Katrina, this means Keesler was in one of the worst spots to be in the hurricane.

[@paulstrathern4309]

@@afweath05 Did it still have that used car place right outside the main gate with the sign 'E-1 and up pre-approved for loans'?

[@strawdawgs78]

I remember reading about how they infiltrated the enemy guard towers (I believe not long after one of their own had been killed). Not everyone took part in that patrol. It was strictly shooters, i.e. all Marine Raider operators, and they trusted the SOWT guy enough to have him on the patrol.

[@gemum4219]

It's interesting how so many of these stories are 'I stumbled into this.'

[@brentj5616]

After he dumps a mag…do you think he shouts “I am the storm!” If not…missed opportunity

[@hammstah9578]

Lot of great stuff in here, gents. Near the end, he makes a really great point, civilians sometimes are at level 11 over something that's really not significant and not going to end the world, but they don't get it, and that level-headed, Solutions minded, calm voice is oftentimes what they need even when they don't know how to receive, understand and accept that.

[@malekkarim9276]

It's like finding a unicorn

[@trevorcarson9732]

Great vid! Love when we get to hear from our Battlefield Airmen !!

[@jcnme27]

I'm glad y'all got someone from AFSOC on the podcast, especially SWOT. A little weird though listening to this guy talk as if other special operation communities weren't familiar with AFSOC. PJ, CCT and TACP have been embedded with Army and Navy operators for decades and now with MARSOC. Perhaps he meant to say they weren't familiar with SOWT? I remember running into a guy who was the precursor to SWOT, Paraweather. This was in 1990 and dude was wearing a light gray beret.

[@jameshermes5576]

They give u a rock ,if it wet its raining...😅

[@twokingz04]

@ 50:20 summed up the Afghan War to me.

[@jackharle1251]

Thanks, brother. - Recon nobody

[@MANC2311]

Great episode, glad he gave a shout out to Ski.

[@F3PIZZA]

Travis, I’m dying to know if Baylis made it into AFSOC! Eyebrows was a _wild_ ride, huh?

[@choppermorgan9946]

Hey Jack hey Dave it's Carl from Indiana I haven't been getting your guys notifications it's now March but I just thought I'd let you know I finally caught up with you guys I don't know if you backread these are NOT

[@dustyrhodes1655]

Rifles only was his first shooting class...based.

[@ryhk3293]

That's fucked up, to be interviewed and on the exit, be disrespected like that. Dude is not an enabler. He's just as much an "operator" as a PJ or CCT and can stack to assault a structure, like any other operator, but unlike most enablers. I mean, the guy just sat there and did an entire interview explaining to you two how SOWTs are not enablers, they are operators and how that's what he had to explain to every team that he had to operate with and that's what the difficult thing was with the second deployment. Jack, you were a green beanie and Dave, you worked for the spooks, you're both supposed to be socially awareii, but both of you decided to wear your Strong Ranger caps today and decided reading between lines wasn't a thing you weren't doing weekdays?

[@dave_parke]

It was a mistake on our end as far as communication. It wasn’t meat to demean his service but to show that even jobs that aren’t advertised as “direct action” can end up being direct action. Poor choice of words on our side.

[@JohnReid-jm7vi]

GREAT response to this comment - You both handled it well in the podcast, as well - Well done @@dave_parke

[@dustyrhodes1655]

I respectfully disagree, but every sees things differently. For me he was saying from a civilian mindset (with minimal military knowledge at best)he was "just a weatherman". If anyone can respect what he did it is the hosts.✌️

[@ryhk3293]

@@dave_parke Hi David, let me first apologize, I wanted to say that it was a great interview, as always, and that it was kind of a fucked up stinger on the exit, which I failed to actually communicate. Second, I failed, I think to get across that I was just giving you fellows a hard time with the green beanie and the strong Ranger comments that it was just meant to be taken, in all thing and in whole, in good humor, as I'm sure the Air Force SOWT trooper that was interviewed, surely did. The problem with the world today is how offended we get over minor shit that doesn't really affect anything and isn't really ours to be offended over anyway. It certainly wasn't my intention to contribute to that general cultural clusterfuck or the perception of it so I appreciate the wisdom that can only come with great age and greater experience in your reply.

[@dave_parke]

@@ryhk3293 no worries at all and I understand your initial concern of saying support or enabler. Appreciate your support and thanks for watching and commenting.

[@divinedamon921]

🤔😯🔥🔥🔥💯💯💯

[@MikeS-vb1bs]

No disrespect to Travis or other individuals in AFSOC but this sounds like mission creep and big AF looking for Uncle Sugar funding. When will the Army leverage this mission creep to obtain their own fixed wing CAS aircraft like the A-10 the airforce does not want to fund?

[@speedracer2336]

They don’t want to train mechanics, new facilities, etc. Air Force mandated to provide CAS to the Army. What’s next bombers, C-5 aircraft?

[@Mike___Kilo]

Why do we need combat weathermen? You can look at your iPhone - or, better yet, look up into the sky - and know what the weather is.

[@ryhk3293]

Surely, you're joking, Mr. Kent. I mean, really, I've been around 18 year olds recently so I can't tell if you're serious.

[@Methodizations]

The air force is crazy. In the Marine corps, weather predictions come from all known sources, but having one individuals mos be responsible of that is ridiculous, but an easy call for the smallest branch that being the corps.