From the S&S archives:
SPs truck in Saudi sand, since some is sacred

CENTRAL SAUDI ARABIA — There's nothing more abundant in this country than sand. It creates the terrain. It surrounds the cities and rolls out to meet the horizon like a boundless brown parking lot, like a shoreless beach. It fills the whole kingdom as snow fills the arctic. No matter where you turn, you can't escape the sand.

But airmen assigned to sandbag-filling details at a military base in this region often run out of it. In fact, to keep up with the demand for bagged sand, the Air Force has to haul it onto the base by the 5-ton truckload.

These airman live in the land of the sacred grain of sand.

The base where they work is royal property — owned by the king of Saudi Arabia — and by his decree not a single shovelful of the sand can be displaced.

"We can't dig the sand here. The king will get irate," explained Airman 1st Class John Vuksinic, 21, a security policeman from Demotte, Ind. Vuksinic and other Air Force cops, deployed for Operation Desert Shield from bases in Michigan, use sandbags to build bunkers along the perimeter of the flight line they guard. As part of the 1703rd Ground Defense Force, they provide security for U.S. warplanes at the base and also guard a nearby barracks compound.

A police squad usually patrols the desert base from midnight to dawn; then the cops switch to filling sandbags to fortify their defensive positions, finally knocking off work at 2 or 3 p.m.

"Sixteen guys can fill 1,700 sandbags a day," said Staff Sgt. Jeff Wohlgamuth, 26, from Wurtsmith, Mich. "All you need is a sturdy back."

At 40 pounds per bag, that means one shift of policemen shovels some 30 tons of sand.

For protection from overhead strafing, the airmen use about 200 sandbags per two-man defensive position. But they have fortified their command post, which they call a "condominium," with 2,000 bags.

The airmen have been in Saudi Arabia one month and say that shoveling sand is bearable under the late fall sun.

"The heat's not so bad anymore," said Airman 1st Class Shawn Latshaw, a 21-year-old security policeman from Titusville, Pa. "Ninetytwo degrees is about the hottest it gets."

The sand they use is hauled from the desert surrounding the base. But despite the fuss this causes, the airmen said they wouldn't want to use the king's dirt that lies at their feet, even if they could. For it's inferior, they say.

"It's ... like silt," said Latshaw. "It's like Ovaltine."

The thick, ankle-deep powder blankets the ground and rises in little dust devils at every footstep. The slightest breeze scoops tall, bitter clouds of it into the air.

Senior Airman Tim Bright agreed about the uselessness of the on-base dirt. "This sand's holy," said the 23-year-old airman from Flint, Mich. "I guess that means it can stop bullets."