The documentary was produced by Combat Camera — the USAF military film unit — specifically to commemorate the squadron’s closure due to post-Cold War budget cuts. Three former National Hurricane Center directors narrate: Bob Sheets, who directed the NHC from 1987 to 1995 and flew through more than 200 hurricane eyes; Dr. Robert Simpson, NHC director from 1967 to 1974 and co-creator of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, who survived the 1919 Corpus Christi hurricane as a child; and Neil Frank, the longest-serving NHC director (1974 to 1987), later chief meteorologist at KHOU Houston. The 53rd WRS was reactivated in November 1993 after Hurricane Andrew demonstrated the Air Force still needed hurricane reconnaissance. The documentary was made before that decision.
This tape is not in IMDb. It is not on Internet Archive. It does not appear in any commercial database. The Hurricane Hunters Association may have records of it; the USAF Combat Camera unit likely has archives somewhere. The 53rd WRS history is well-documented in text — the tape captures something else: the deactivation ceremony itself, the Last Flight, the champagne sprayed on the planes, the final crew. The Silver Skate Award, an internal squadron honor for most goof-off time, was retired to a wall. That is the kind of thing that does not end up in official histories.
