The Gist: Tony Dokoupil on military meteorologists, and Fred Kaplan on NSS.

The First Person on the Ground When U.S. Special Operations Strike? A Meteorologist.

The First Person on the Ground When U.S. Special Operations Strike? A Meteorologist.

A daily news and culture podcast with Mike Pesca.
Feb. 10 2015 6:23 PM

Killer Commando Weathermen

The warrior culture of special operations is learning to count meteorologists among its ranks.

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Much of the world remains weather-blind. Cue the gray berets.

Photo illustration by Slate. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Air Force.

Listen to Episode 192 of Slate’s The Gist:

gist_dailyemails

Is the White House’s new National Security Strategy just a procedural brief, or does it tell us a larger story about U.S. foreign policy? Today on The Gist, Slate’s Fred Kaplan explains why security strategies are now exponentially more complicated than they were in decades past. Plus, NBC’s Tony Dokoupil reports on how the military has groomed meteorologists to be intellectually and physically capable of running with our most elite warriors. His multimedia feature is called “Send In the Weathermen.” For the Spiel, the steady decline of McDonald’s seen through a cultural lens.

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Mike Pesca is the host of the Slate daily podcast The Gist. He also contributes reports and commentary to NPR.