Prop blast and tumbleweeds

October 08, 2006

I thought it was a freak windstorm.

In the dark of early night, swirls of dirt and exhaust moved through the air like an angry cloud. The wind whipped past the 10-foot concrete barriers between squadron headquarters and the flightline like the barriers weren't even there.

"Prop blast," said Lt. Col. Mark Czelusta, squadron commander of Little Rock Air Force Base's 777th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, as he fought to hold on to the papers in his hand.

Czelusta was walking along the wooden pallets that are used like sidewalks over here. It's easier to walk on the pallets than the thick gravel and dirt. And in the rainy season, which is fast approaching, this place turns into a swamp. The soil doesn't absorb water. I don't know why.

We walked to the other side of the concrete, our eyes squinting against the raging blast and dirt.

"See?" he said, pointing while holding his hat on his head.

There, about a football field away, was a C-130 with its engines churning.

Prop blast. It's powerful stuff. If you look at the massive tail of a C-130 while its engines are fully churning on the ground, you'll see it move back and forth and up and down, buffeted by the blast.

By the operations trailer, the ugliest tumbleweed around rolled by me. It moved down the pallet sidewalk like it knew where it was going. And everyone stepped out of its way.

It looked like a regular tumbleweed from a distance. It rolled like one and has the same dried, wiry texture. Get up close and you'll see it's no ordinary tumbleweed.

This thing has little green leaves the color of lima beans. And circling the edge of each leaf are thorns. Big thorns.

Two days ago it was out by the road. Today, it's made it through the barriers to the other side of the squadron area. With this kind of wind motivating it, no wonder it moves so much.

Then, just as quickly as the prop blast windstorm started, it stopped.

Who knows where we'll see the tumbleweed next.

Posted by editor at October 8, 2006 12:44 PM