A recommendation was made at the 20th session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (now known as the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ) in March 1964 for the United Nations Secretariat and World Meteorological Organization to investigate the feasibility of a multinational program for monitoring typhoons. This led to the formation of the ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee, which held its inaugural session in 1968. Prior to the inception of the Typhoon Committee, the United States Indo-Pacific Command had designated the U.S. Fleet Weather Central in Guam as the JTWC in May 1959. The JTWC was tasked with warning U.S. government agencies on tropical cyclones in the northwestern Pacific, in addition to researching and orchestrating aircraft reconnaissance into such storms. Boeing B-47 Stratojets were deployed from the 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron to carry out airborne reconnaissance. The JTWC issued 730 warnings on 26 typhoons, 14 tropical storms, and 5 tropical depressions. The number of typhoons was a new record, topping the 24 set in 1962. Ten of these occurred in the South China Sea, compared to the annual average of 3.2 in the five years preceding 1964. The anomalous strength of tropical waves observed during the latter-half of the year may have contributed to season's high activity. Ten of the year's tropical cyclones—Grace, Helen, Nancy, Pamela, Ruby, Fran, Georgia, Iris, Kate, Louise, and Opal—were first detected using meteorological satellites.