Desert Storm - Dust Storms Twister tornado

Dust storms and small twister like tornadoes occur in South East Asia and are rarely caught on tape or camera and documented. I remember in the first gulf war after my unit had completed all of our missions we wanted to go back home with sun tans. While we were short on tanning products we were able to pick up some sunscreen. While deep in Iraq we came across a picnic bench, so we threw it in the back of one of our 5 ton trucks for later use. So on a very hot summer day we pulled back into the Saudi Arabian Desert, set up the picnic bench and many of us lubed up with sunscreen. A few guys actually used 10-40 motor oil as lotion <<<YUCK!!!>>> Real bright!

So here we are, all of us passed out under the sun sprawled across the desert. As a bonus my brother had sent me a copy of that years top 100 collegiate girls nudey magazine which had been through the hands of 100+ guys that hadn't seen a woman in 8 months. And then it happens. An almost turbine sound. My flesh being sand blasted as I scrunch into the fetal position. I cup my hands over my face and attempt to peak through the cracks in my fingers. I hear guys yelling and laughing real hard. I see the picnic bench and the magazine being ripped apart page by page and flying skyward then north-east. By the time things are done we have 8 U.S. Army warriors in their underwear, caked with sand, no water or showers within 100 miles, and 100 pages of pure American beauty streaming across the Iraq skies heading for Baghdad, in a country where nudity is outlawed. You could say this was quite a poetic way of sending us off. A memorable one for sure.

The following storm is in an un-disclosed location and is un-explained. Interesting flash storm much like what we witnessed in 1991. Click any of the images below for a larger image.

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