Rhino Snot helps Marines combat damaging dust in Iraq

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Lance Cpl. Cesar V. Lazo with Marine Wing Support Squadron 172, moves barrels of Rhino Snot at a construction site at Combat Outpost Rawah, Iraq in April 2008.


Rhino Snot helps Marines combat damaging dust in Iraq
By Cindy Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, August 27, 2008

AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq — Marines in Anbar province are up against more than insurgents. They have another potentially deadly "enemy" that can’t be killed, only contained.

They call it "moon dust," a baby powder-fine sand that can cause havoc when helicopters land.

Rotor backwash can kick up so much of the dust that it causes a brownout, obscuring the landing.

Upon their arrival from Okinawa to Al Asad Air Base in the spring, Marine Wing Support Squadron 172’s combat engineers were charged with managing the hazard at the temporary landing pads the squadron is building throughout Anbar.

The task was a first for the air support squadron, said 1st Lt. Emma Frowine, commander of the squadron’s Engineer Operations Company. Dust abatement is something normally done by ground support crews, she added.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=57014