-Caveat Lector- Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/news/gen/mar03/128526.asp
Sandstorm stops troops in their tracks High winds, rain of mud make soldiers' lives miserable By JIM DWYER New York Times Last Updated: March 25, 2003 Central Iraq - The helicopters were parked in the desert. Only the sand flew on Tuesday, and it was breaking speed limits, 50 miles an hour and more. When the winds backed down for an hour or so, the sand hovered in the air. It was possible during such respites to see about 25 yards. The helicopters stayed on the ground, because the wind would pick up again, and visibility would drop to zero again. War Against Iraq Photo/AP Marine Staff Sgt. Brian Flaherty, of New York Delta Company of the Second Tank Battalion, disconnects a fuel bladder from a tank as a sandstorm rages in Iraq. Section: More on the war against Iraq Updates: Latest news from the Associated Press Multimedia: Daily TMJ4 reports, briefings, etc. Photos: Nation at war List: U.S. deaths, prisoners, missing On the Front Line Analysis: On public opinion front, Iraqi mission takes a hit Weather: Sandstorm stops troops in their tracks Toosi: 'This is like right out of a science fiction movie' Basra: British hammer targets in key southern Iraqi city Battle for Baghdad: Plan to use speed, strength, savvy North: Kurds spoiling to go on offensive against Iraq Iraq: Abandoned chemical suits may be clues to Iraqi plans Regrouping: Armored convoy pauses to 'refit, refuel, rearm' Medics: Advances in battlefield medicine pay off immediately Weaponry: U.S. destroying Iraqi signal- jamming devices Weaponry: 2 Patriot missile mistakes raise questions Aid : Aid is ready to flow as soon as cities taken Combat victim: Left war- torn Guatemala for new life in America Briefs: Another soldier dies from grenade attack On the Home Front Stingl: Violence has no place at peace rally Bush: At Pentagon, president cites steady progress Poll : Images affect public perception Europe rift: Blair, Bush to talk about war, relations Business: For many minorities, military offers more opportunities than private sector Wisconsin: Doyle urges support for reservists Media: Arab Web site seeks Western audience Grenade attack: Slinger principal's son is among injured soldiers TV: Embedded correspondent blending in well with troops Journal Sentinel Correspondents Reports from Journal Sentinel Middle East correspondents: KATHERINE M. SKIBA: Embedded with 101st Airborne Division based in Fort Campbell, Ky. Attached to the 159th Aviation Brigade, which conducts air assault missions from helicopters. Go to Skiba's reports NAHAL TOOSI: Embedded with First Marines Expeditionary Force based in Camp Pendleton, Calif. Attached to the 6th Engineer Support Battalion, whose primary mission is storage and supply of bulk fuel and water. Bulk Fuel Company B, made up of units from Green Bay and Wilmington, Del., is part of the battalion. Go to Toosi's reports Postcards from Wisconsin Soldiers Katherine M. Skiba and Nahal Toosi bring firsthand word from Wisconsin soldiers serving in the Persian Gulf. Go to Postcards The single, solitary departure from this pattern came when it suddenly rained in the early evening. What fell from the sky was not water but mud, the rain pulling suspended sand into wet globs and pelting those foolish mortals who thought they could endure a 30- or 40-hour sandstorm. The temperature was just below 100 degrees, and everyone traveling with the military was wearing protective chemical and biological suits that enclosed the body from head to toe, plus body armor and a helmet. In late afternoon, the top officers from a few different Army units, grounded by the sandstorm, ended up meeting on a desert road. They pulled out maps and compared notes on battle plans for the next few days. Among the group were generals and colonels who would be making the important calls. They were about five minutes into the meeting, leaning over the papers on the hood of a Humvee, when a Special Forces officer, who was protecting the group, looked over the horizon. A giant black column was leaning across the desert sky. The officer tapped a colonel on the shoulder, pointed to the sky. In an instant, everyone grabbed the papers, and generals and privates ran for their trucks and Humvees. "It was biblical," said Col. Ricky Gibbs of the 101st Airborne Division who was among those standing on the road. "There's a movie - 'Scorpion King' - that shows this same kind of sandstorm. That's the only other place I've seen it like that, and I grew up in Texas, where we had plenty of this." Gibbs' truck would not start, but a sergeant behind the wheel jumped out and fixed it in a few minutes, with a combination of cussing and fussing. "Combat maintenance," Gibbs said. To make it about five or six miles back to the camp, one Humvee crawled through the desert, as the driver, the general and a lieutenant who served as the general's aide navigated using a high-tech satellite system called Blue Force Tracker. Despite cover, sand creeps in If sand were measured like humidity, it would have been 100% on Tuesday. Brown neck gators were pulled over the nose; goggles sealed off the eyes. The sand crept in, anyway. "You dwell too long on it, you go crazy," Sgt. Maj. Hector Torres said. To sleep, the soldiers curled up in the lee of trucks, or huddled in their sleeping bags, which are full of clever design features to make them miniature tents. By day, the soldiers from the 101st were kept busy reinforcing the camp they have set up here in central Iraq, primarily a base for the helicopter gunships flown by the division. The official name is Forward Operating Base Shell; another similar base is called Exxon. Although they are in remote areas of the country, a few snipers have been spotted around the perimeters, and there is concern about mortar fire. The soldiers bulldozed the sand into long berms, and dug bunkers as a refuge. For shelter, the soldiers climbed into the back of trucks or squatted in a friend's Humvee. Well-stocked with baby wipes After the rain fell, the sky brightened, for an hour or so, into a strange burnt umber color. "We're on Mars now," Sgt. Henry DeGrace declared. Gibbs said he spent nearly eight months here before the Persian Gulf War of 1991, so he had come well-stocked with baby wipes and the essentials of living without running water, with no showers or regular toilets. Clothing turns out not to be all that important a part of the kit, since the protective chemical suits have to be worn 24 hours a day. Most soldiers wear just a tee shirt and underwear. Sgt. Michael E. Murray recalled using his plugger - the global positioning device that nearly all the soldiers carry - a few weeks ago, during another sandstorm, to get to the mess hall. "It was good chow," he said, fondly recalling the meal. Of course, that was back in one of the rear camps, which had mess halls. As he and a few soldiers chatted with a reporter, another man came into a tent. He had just gone outside to burn one, as the soldiers say about having a cigarette. "You went outside to smoke in this?" asked Torres. "I would," interjected Sgt. Murray, handing along a piece of military wisdom given to him: "You've got to embrace the suck." Clearing expected The powerful front that brought the latest sandstorms to much of Iraq was likely to clear by night, and similar conditions should not return for perhaps a week or two, private and military meteorologists said Tuesday. "After the system that is going through right now we see a lull," said Lt. Col. Eric McKinley, the director of air and space science at the Air Force Weather Agency. The Air Force agency, based at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, has been providing detailed forecasts of dust and sand conditions to troops in and around Iraq using a computer model that was first used during operations in Afghanistan in late 2001. The dust storm that struck Monday derived its power from a collision of cold air driving out of northern Europe and warm air over the Mediterranean Sea, and its winds were focused over the flat terrain of Iraq by the funnel-like curve of the mountain ranges of Turkey to the north and Iran to the east. As heat builds in the latter half of spring, dust storms temporarily ebb, but summer in Iraq brings a new weather pattern in which strong shamal winds can blow out of the north for weeks at a time and create a near-relentless choking pall. Andrew C. Revkin of the New York Times contributed to this report. Forwarded for your information. 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