As result of developing tornado and severe storm forecasting technique, Lt. Col. Ernest J. Fawbush and Maj. Robert C. Miller, director and assistant director, respectively, of Tinker's Severe Weather Warning Center, 6th Weather squadron, have been presented Commendation medals and citations signed by Hon. Thomas K. Finletter, secretary of the United States Air Force. A formal presentation was made to the two officers by Col. Alfred L. Haig, Base Executive, during a special review of troops Saturday morning.
       The citations were signed by Secretary Finletter and were for severed storm warning service rendered by the two Tinker officers from March, 1948 to April, 1952. Each citation reads in part:
       "His technical ability and devotion to duty in developing a tornado and severe storm warning forecasting method had resulted in the saving of many lives and untold amounts of government property. Through the use of his forecasts, military installations throughout the United States have been enabled to prepare for tornadoes, high winds and hail, while pilots have been forewarned of icing conditions and degree of turbulence. These services have forestalled equipment damage amounting to millions of dollars.
       "In cooperating with the United States Weather Bureau, he has also rendered a great service to the American public, by dispelling, to a large degree, the surprise factor inherent in most violent storms. By pioneering in this new meteorological field, by helping to save human lives and great amounts of government property, and by giving unstintingly of his time to the development of severe weather forecasting methods, he has brought great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force."
       Perhaps no two other meteorologists have received as much publicity for discovering a method of forecasting severe weather as have Colonel Fawbush and Major Miller. The first national publicity came on July 28, 1951, when the Saturday Evening Post carried an article entitled, "Flash - Tornado Warning," in which was explained the Fawbush-Miller method for predicting storms of tornado proportions as well as the approximate areas and times in which such storms would occur. The article stated that the Fawbush-Miller method had been 95 percent correct.
       Since then Tinker's expert weather team have been given reams of publicity far and wide but that has not distracted from their work. On February 15, 1952, the two officers set up a new project called, "Tornado Alley," in which a concetrated study of severe weather activity was made over an area extending from Lubbock, Texas to Colorado and Nebraska. This was done in stages, the first being from Lubbock to Enid and the second from Enid north to the Nebraska line, as the cold fronts receded.
       The two officers plan to repeat the study this year for the purpose of double checking on information secured in 1952.
       Both Colonel Fawbush and Major Miller began their weather study during World War II. The Colonel was first stationed at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, while Major Miller began his studies in California and later in Australia. Colonel Fawbush came to Tinker as weather officer in 1948. Shortly thereafter they set up a joint study of severe weather conditions in this area.