sergeant brice hauser have war stories. >> if the ied goes off, we have guys hurt on the ground, and it's my job to let the med see vac birds to come. i suggest a flight path, and they were able to get in and get the two wounded guys off the l.z. >> reporter: lieutenant colonel benson commands the sowts and knows how important the training is. >> early on in the iraq campaign, we had guys up in northern iraq and taking weather observations and passing them back to 16 aircraft that were about to deliver about 1,000 paratroopers. weather cleared up for a brief period of time, 1,000 guys were able to land. >> reporter: don't refer to them as just the weatherman. >> to be called just the weatherman gets under your skin but once you're put in a situation to prove yourself when