Lt. Col. Jim Hitterman, 53rd Weather Reconnaissance

Lt. Col. Jim Hitterman, 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron aircraft commander, and Maj. Devon Meister, co-pilot, fly into Tropical Storm Guillermo off the coast of Hawaii Aug. 3, 2015, to gather meteorological data for the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Tropical weather reconnaissance is governed by the National Hurricane Operations Plan, which requires the squadron to support 24-hour-a-day continuous operations, with the ability to fly up to three storms simultaneously with response times of 16 hours. As of Sept. 1, 2015, they have been deployed to the Atlantic and Pacific simultaneously three times. (U.S. Air Force photo/Maj. Marnee A.C. Losurdo)