Today’s forcast? Suck
Had our first good sandstorm of the season today. Wow. Here are some pics of the event.
Umm, that’s not good.
Run for your lives! The wall of doom approaches! Repent, repent, fellow heathens! The time of reckoning draws neigh.
It moved surprisingly fast.
At this point, I ran back to my office (building in foreground) in an attempt to escape the nastiness.
Things went dark. Like REALLY dark.
The initial wave blotted out the sun, casting us into an erie rust-red dusk. It was something straight out of the Bible. The shock of the storm knocked out our power. Creepy.
The air smacked you in the face.
Hey Salmons, get inside! A couple of us breathed in the muck to grab a few shots. It was crazy how the crap filled every nook and cranny of everything, including our lungs. My throat closed up and I could barely breathe. Bleck!
After a few minutes, the sun began to shine through. By now even our offices had become a cloudy mess from the storm blowing through every miniscule crack and gap in the soundly lacking Iraqi architecture.
Who dat?
Power kicked back on after a while, although the day didn’t return to normal for a bit. Wish you were here!!
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Talking Salmons 
Well Sgt., great photos of the sandstorm. Quick technical question as this is my first visit to your site. What gear are you shooting (camera) with in the box? It appears it might be Nikon from the images, but you have stripped out all the EXIF data in your posted shots, so I cannot tell from that. Do you have issues with the fine powder dust and lenses and/or CCD cleaning? How do you deal with it if so?
Hey BW, thanks for stopping by!
I guess when I “Save for Web” it knocks out all the metadata, sorry ’bout that :p
We use the slightly older Nikon D1X with the upgraded faster bus and all that business. We have 1GB cards that let us take about 400-ish pics at our preferred settings.
Our main problems come from the fact that we only have one camera body, meaning we have to switch lenses out even during a shot. The main amount of crap that gets into a camera happens when switching lenses outside.
Were we to have two bodies, I’d probably never take off the lenses and seal them up.
I keep mine cleaner than my weapon, honestly, so I don’t have too many issues, but dirt does get into everything. The CCD stays pretty clean, considering.
Given that most gas/projectile based weapon systems generate a significant amount of their own “gunk”, that is likely a reasonable strategy, but the only shooting you can do with a camera is inbound. Although glass is heavy enough that when thrown hard enough can be somewhat effective :-).
Seriously though, it’s good to see that the Army has gone digital these days, so one more question…. Does the Army mandate Windows, or do you guys get to use Macs?
Considering that we both live on Taji, I find it interesting that we’ve never bothered to so much as meet for Taco Bell.
BW: Windows all the way for us 😦 However, for the broadcasters, there are a few Final Cut systems that are issued, but most guys I interface with still work Avid on Dells.
I’m a Mac man by night, though, so I try to keep it real 😉
Dave: For serious! Lets hook it up!
That orange….intense! And more than a little eerie. I cannot even imagine, so the pix really help.
Hang tough, big guy!
Hey Beth! How’s it goin’?
It goes, Josh Salmons, it goes! 😉 Thanks for asking!