From the S&S archives: Weatherman Willard Scott visits Desert Shield troops

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia — It's not every day that a well-known weatherman drops in for a cup of coffee, but then again it's not every day that Willard Scott is strapped into a Blackhawk helicopter in the middle of the Saudi Arabian desert.

The popular network weatherman spent five days last week broadcasting his forecasts from various locations with the United States troops. When his on-air work was done at each specific location, he volunteered to entertain the desert-weary soldiers.

Last week he dropped in unexpectedly for coffee with 12 GIs at a camouflaged helicopter refueling site. Scott is a huge man. In his battle fatigues he looks the part of a military type if you didn't recognize his trademark bald head and wide grin.

The soldiers were glad to see him. Scott said they "jawboned" and he had the best cup of coffee from the entire trip. "There's no question that they are bored and ... monotony has taken its toll," Scott said. "You know if I'd gone out there and taken off one shoe they probably would have given me a standing ovation."

With little chance for leave outside Saudi Arabia and not much in the way of visiting entertainers, Scott provided a welcome relief to the military routine.

"It was like a Bob Hope show and instead of bringing stars from home, they were the stars," Scott said.

The television personality, who is famous for his on-location weather reports from off-beat places, said he had to sell NBC network executives on the merits of the trip.

"I said, `Hey, I do all the parades, festivals at home, eat the apple pie and go to the church suppers.' These are the sons and daughters of those people," Scott said.

His bald spot beet-red from five days under the scorching Saudi Arabian sun, Scott said he suspected establishing a rapport with the troops would come easy.

"I know that most of the people knew me over the years because I've been on the show for 10 years," Scott said. "I'm old enough that I could be their uncle or father and I think that was the thing that really worked."

One of the routines Scott used to entertain soldiers was to pose as a member of the military police and surprise drivers as they passed a checkpoint. To do that, however, he had to sport military garb and that is not necessarily an easy task for a man of his size and girth.

"I run into that all of the time so I had the solution, you rip the back of the pants out and put the jacket (over) the outside," he said. "Anytime I wanted a laugh I just hiked up my shirt."