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Detachment 18 was a aviation weather support unit. Unlike the typical Air Force Air Weather Service unit it served Army aviation. The Air Force has it's roots in the Army Air Corps and unlike the rest of the "new" Air Force, Det 18 never really left the Army. Det 18's Air Force personnel served over 40 years with forward Army units in Korea. Many of the Detachments personnel served as 2 or 3 man "OLs" (operating locations) attached to Army units at:
CAMP WALKER-CAMP CASEY-CAMP RED CLOUD
CAMP HUMPREYS-CAMP LaGUARDIA-STANTON AAF
The Detachments main weather station was at YONGSAN AI, Seoul, Korea serving 8th Army UNC.
Living and working conditions were "Army"...
Although Detachment 18 no longer exists, Air Force personnel still serve an Army aviation weather support mission in many of these same remote locations in the year 2000.
K-46 Hoengsong, Korea
Detachment 18, 20th Weather Squadron supports P-51 interdiction bombing missions against North Korean and Chinese Communist forces with superior weather forecasting.
Ssgt Al Salazar and four others left K-16 (Seoul) with all the equipment for a weather station and set up at K-46 (Hoengsong).
Al Salazar at K-46 spring 1951
Breakdown on the road from Seoul 1951
By 1952 the base weather station was co-located with operations in a similar building four feet down surrounded with sand bag bunkers and sand bags on the roof.
Det 18 30WS was dug in…