Two years ago, moments after flying blind into a cumulus cloud to impregnate it with salt, Capt. Giemel Espino, head of the PAF rainmaking squadron, thought he was about to meet the First and Ultimate Creator of sunshine and rain. His Cessna, frail as a kite – not pressurized, with no weather radar and only a co-pilot beside him to seize the controls in case he blacked out from vertigo – was inches away from the tip of a mountain in Isabela.

The captain, 36 at the time, pulled up his frail but faithful plane in the nick of time, and lived to tell why our Air Force (said to be all air and no force) needs all the help it can get to produce rain – and produce it not when the land is already dry and parched, for then there’d be no clouds to seed.

Consider also: (1) The science is 50 years old in the Philippines. King Bhumibol of Thailand has developed his own technology that is today recognized by 30 other countries. (2) A new Cessna Turbo costs R13 million (which needs another form of wizardry to produce). (3) The key to the Thai technique is two planes flying in tandem, one above and one under a cloud, like a "super sandwich."

Our technique is outmoded – "mano-mano." Our planes are lethal toys. Why does Capt. Espino stick it out in the Air Force?

"Somebody has to do it," said the 2005 Outstanding Soldiers awardee.