Craft/Light able to penetrate through sand-storm
This event took place within the first 3 months of being forward deployed to Al Asad Air Base Iraq, the closest Major city in Proximity to the Air Base, was Ramadi. After my unit's arrival in Iraq we were forced to split the platoon into port and starboard - Port side staying aboard Al Asad - Starboard side being sent to the middle of know-where Shadow Range North(which I was included in the group being sent to Shadow Range North of course). Shadow Range North was a training site/range for incoming units, giving the opportunity to sharpen any TTP's that needed improvement. On the morning of the event(Feb 2008) @ appox. 03:00 I started to witnessing a sand storm pushing into our location from the south, it appeared at this time to be a massive wall of darkness(lack of a better word)heading straight towards my location(shadow range north). If you've never payed witness to a sand storm they can be quite intimidating to say the least. Thus I contacted the COC(command observation center)to notify them that air medivac would soon go too ground transport only. Helicopters/fixed wing aircraft cannot fly in this type of weather, so it's important to let the command center know of this in-case it's not being observed via their sensors. This was the only radio transmission I personally made to the COC during my 12 hours of duty(w/ only 1 other unsuccessful attempt made at about 04:30). 04:15 - was about the time I decided to do my "rounds" by walking a full circle around the entire patrol base before writing in the log book that I had done so; while doing my rounds I noticed a light emulating from the north headed in the south westerly direction running parallel with the patrol base, and when I say light emulating - I mean just that, anyone whose observed a sand storm of this magnitude will know that even sunlight struggles to penetrate through the density of an Iraqi sand storm. The object in question had no such struggles; it appeared to be hovering 10-20ft above the ground, moving at an extremely slow pace, so slow in-fact any conventional aircraft would likely fall out of the sky. This obviously grabbed my attention, because i'd never witnessed anything even remotely close to what I was currently observing. If my memory serves me correctly I remember said object to be roughly less than a football field away from my observing location; the object never came any closer. I did in-fact attempt to contact the COC to inform them of my observation, but at this time the black gear radio I was equipped with was inoperable. I observed the object for roughly 10-15 minutes, and it vanished just as quickly as it appeared. Once I arrived back at the duty hut I informed the NCO(non-commissioned officer)in charge of all duty personnel currently, of what I had just observed. He appeared to be moved by my account but also seemed to be holding back - as if he'd observed something similar but was reluctant to speak about it. We did in-fact log this occurrence in the duty log-book, but chose not too contact the COC because we were obviously in fear of it effecting our military careers and credibility. I will also mention, one more weird phenomena while observing said object; moments prior to noticing the light - it was as if something eliminated all background noise(s). As if the object was creating a noise cancelling vacuum of sorts, temporarily while in the presence of said light/object. I'm now in my early 30's and still have no clue/idea or theory to what I observed in the early morning hours of February 2008.