100509 C-RAM, the roar of a dinosaur

100509 C-RAM, the roar of a dinosaur

This last week we went to the bunkers due to incoming mortar attacks several times and on Saturday we went twice.  I'm constantly asked "how can you live like that?"  The reality is that it's not a big deal.  We hear an explosion and then usually the alarm and then we throw on a flak jacket and orderly walk to the bunker.  Now if the explosion is close, I'll probably just run to the bunker.  Once in the bunker, there is a sense of being 'safe' and we'll wait patiently for the 'all clear' signal from the big voice (Command loudspeaker).  It's really not a big deal.

The TV program M.A.S.H was about a mobile Army hospital unit near the front lines in the Korean war.  In one MASH episode there is a story about 4 O'clock Charlie.  Now 4 O'clock Charlie would drop 1 mortar around 4 O'clock every Friday afternoon.  Well, for the last three weeks now 'something' has occurred at about 6 PM here that causes the C-RAM to fire.  In addition (like clockwork) the C-RAM would fire again about 5 minutes later.  So this last Friday after the first C-RAM went off I went outside and was lucky enough to get a shot of the C-RAM firing.  It's really pretty cool as you first see a sputtering red line (in the pic you see the red line being fired over the building in which I work.) About a second later comes the 'roar'.  It a VERY loud roar and sounds like what I might imagine a T-Rex to sound like. 

The other two pics are of me on the top of the fuel bunker from which I took picture of the C-RAM firing.  One pic is without a flash and the other pic (taken just 10 seconds later) is with a flash.  In the flash pic all of those hazy dots are are dust in the air.  There's always a lot of dust in the air even on a 'clear' day or night.

R/Chris