Technology and culture Book Reviews 161 vances new and sometimes controversial interpretations of the sub ject. John H. Morrow, Jr. Dr. Morrow, head of the History Department at the University of Tennessee, Knox ville, has published two books on German airpower before and during World War I and is currendy writing another on airpower in World War I. America’s Weather Warriors 1814—1985. By Charles C. Bates and John F. Fuller. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986. Pp. xxiv + 360; illustrations, maps, tables, notes, appendixes, bibliography, index. $29.95. For 170 years, America’s “weather warriors” have made signifi cant contributions to the science of meteorology and to military strat egy and tactics. The Army Medical Department, Topographical Engineers, and Signal Service, and the Navy Hydrographic Office all made notable contributions to meteorology in the 19th century. In the 20th century, aviation weather forecasting played a crucial role in wartime operations. Charles C. Bates, a retired air force colo nel who forecast surf conditions for amphibious invasions in World War II, and John F. Fuller, a historian with the Air Weather Serv ice and former fighter pilot, have written a history of the U.S. mili tary weather services that includes both the human and the technical dimensions. This is military history, but it addresses an im portant gap in the literature of the history of technology. Over 80 percent of America’s Weather Warriors is devoted to develop ments since 1940—and here lies the book’s strength. Fuller’s numer ous oral histories and Bates’s personal acquaintances give life to a narrative based primarily on public documents and in-house histo ries. Unfortunately, the 19th century is discharged in eleven pages, and the early 20th century is excused in thirty-four. The lack of un classified documents further hinders the treatment of recent develop ments such as the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. In fact, not a word is said about the role of atmospheric scientists in new technologies related to the Strategic Defense Initiative. This is a book about synoptic meteorology and aviation weather. To their credit, the authors emphasize the interplay of human and technical systems: “You can put your computers back-to-back, and the maps, and the charts, and the airplanes . . . but you’ve got to have the people too, or you’ve got nothing. People are what it is all about” (p. 238). They also argue that complex military equip ment renders military operations “more sensitive to the environ ment” (p. 210). In Vietnam, extremely high water concentrations in monsoonal rain clouds could induce compressor stalls in jet engines and blank out radar signals. Summer heat was so bad that the electri cal insulation melted in 367 F-4 fighters and had to be redone, at 162 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE an average cost of $59,000 per aircraft. “Smart bombs” became stu pid in the presence of haze, mist, cloud, and pronounced atmo spheric refraction. “All in all, weather so tempered the targeting, tactics, timing, and type of ordnance employed that the Seventh Air Force’s two major omnibus air plans were entitled ‘Northeast Monsoon Campaign’ and ‘Southwest Monsoon Campaign’ ” (p. 206). Presidents Johnson and Nixon controlled the tactical exercises of a U.S. armed force half a globe removed from the White House. Yet they could not control the weather. “Because they ignored it, some critical diplomatic maneuvering [the authors do not say what] that should have been backed up by airpower was allowed to take place during the annual northeast monsoon, even though that per iod brought predominately poor flying weather to North Vietnam” (p. 208). Addressing the issue of technological transfer between military and civilian realms, the authors note that, since 1940, twenty-five presidents of the American Meteorological Society have had mili tary backgrounds. Cooperative ventures, such as the joint weathermodification program of the General Electric Company and the U.S. Air Force, cooperative educational programs between the mili tary and major universities, and shared technologies such as the com puter and weather satellites are cited as mechanisms for this transfer. The topic of meteorology and the military ca. 1940—80 has been ably addressed by...