In the World War II struggle for control of the Pacific, weather was everything. Storms forming over mainland China would sweep across the ocean, wreaking havoc in Japanese lanes and disrupting the advance of the American fleets. In 1944, one typhoon caught ships from the U.S. Third Fleet in the open sea, killing 778 men. Another storm damaged 33 separate craft.

Our Navy needed better weather data — and Milton “Mary” Miles delivered. After enlisting in the First World War, he earned an appointment to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. When war came again, the Navy dispatched him to China. There, Miles commanded a network of weather stations that informed the fleet of conditions on the mainland and kept watch for Japanese ships.