Why was as a Pompeii movie being shown at Clark Air Base cinema in June 1991 ?

Is it possible that there is a special reason that the USA Clark Air Force Base cinema movie that was being shown just prior to the destruction of this Clark AFB by the Pinatubo volcano, was titled "Last Days of Pompeii" in June of 1991 ?



www.smate.wwu.edu...




Do a search ( Control F ) on the above web page for pompeii, for documentation of this movie being shown.



[edit on 30-7-2010 by trader21]

I see cause and effect, but not in the self-fulfilling prophecy way.

Pinatubo had been acting up for weeks before the big eruption. Seismic events, outgassing, all the telltale signs of a major eruption on the way.

So, the vulcanologists were on the ground there, the military had been, for the most part, evacuated, whole populations were being moved around, right.

The volcano was on EVERYBODY'S mind. It's all they were thinking about. Therefore, I see cause and effect — the impending eruption was dominating the collective mind, and they chose, as a result, to watch a volcano-related movie. Simple.

One of the funny anecdotes out of that situation at Clark was that a skeleton staff of military personnel were holed-up in a fortified cinderblock building along with a group of die-hard vulcanologists, monitoring the seismic readings down to the last moment.

These were some BRAVE people, I tell you.

When Pinatubo finally popped, the seismic readings all went off the chart, of course, and they KNEW a pyroclastic floe was thundering down on them.

One of the military guys was checking the exterior of the building to see if anybody was out there, and JEEZUS here was a GENERAL out in the open, running for the door. The guy yelled, "You'd better put jam in your pockets, General, because we're about to be toast!"

LOL

Obviously they lived through it, or else the story wouldn't have survived.

— Doc Velocity

I could be wrong, but the story goes like this:

A scientist was running toward the General. The General asked him why he was running. The scientist said the bit about the toast. Then the General got to running, too. (By the time this had happened, all other personnel had been evacuated, and only the science team and the General were left at the base).

Originally posted by Doc Velocity
"You'd better put jam in your pockets, General, because we're about to be toast!"
— Doc Velocity

While I respect the seriousness of the situation....thats just plain funny!

Glad everyone made it out. I can also see the relevance of watching Pompeii while under the threat of an actual volcanic eruption. Its something I would do, given the circumstances.

Originally posted by Jim Scott
I could be wrong, but the story goes like this:

A scientist was running toward the General. The General asked him why he was running. The scientist said the bit about the toast. Then the General got to running, too. (By the time this had happened, all other personnel had been evacuated, and only the science team and the General were left at the base).

No, you're probably right, I was reciting that from memory and it's been maybe 7 years since I last saw the documentary containing that line about jam in your pockets... LOL

I still laugh when I think of it. But, man, a volcano has gotta be one of the scariest damn things on Earth — I'd like to take that Grand Tour of all the major active volcanoes on the planet, it's supposed to be pretty death-defying, walking out on fresh lava beds, breathing toxic fumes, not knowing if the thing was going to pop and kill your ass at any moment.

Man. That would be rather sick.

— Doc Velocity

I was on the first plane into Subic after it blew. There was about 6 feet of ash there, but the runway is right next to the water and they were able to clear it for us to come in.

This Youtube video documents some of the same information as the above comment threads that were given in this post ( particularly from 1:50 to 3:05 in this video ).



www.youtube.com...

This Youtube video below beginning at about 3:35 in the video shows another Clark Air Base geophysicist clearly expressing his great joy and desire fulfillment that Mt Pinatubo had a horrible eruption. I wonder if all these seemingly laughing psychopathic geophysicists had something to do with somehow making these Pinatubo events happen. For example don't show a Pompeii movie at the base cinema, and don't make and eat popcorn during the major eruptions ( that part of the movie ).



www.youtube.com...

I believe that these publicly made stupid youtube comments by these scientists of the US Geological Survey ( as is shown in the above youtube web addresses of this post ) are harmful to everyone. People in foreign countries are often very sensitive to what high level US scientists have to say about their country's tragedy. And many times these people will generalize negative opinions about all US Americans because of the stupid youtube comments that these scientists have said.

Does anyone know when the US Air Force Thunderbird demonstration flying team last visited Clark Air Base, prior to June of 1991 ? I think that the Thunderbird team visited Clark Air Base in 1990 or 1991, but I am not able to confirm the year or the date.



The North American Indian's mythological term for thunderbird has a possible interpretation as an active volcano that is high up on the top of a mountain, such as Mt. Pinatubo: Definition: "a huge, eagle like bird capable of producing thunder, lightning, and rain".



dictionary.reference.com...



It is interesting that if one does a google search of "Clark County air force base", then several of the google results returned are for Nellis Air Force Base that is located in Clark County Nevada. This base is where this USAF Thunderbird's flying demonstration team is headquartered.



It is also interesting that Nellis AFB is located about seven miles north from downtown Las Vegas on Las Vegas Blvd North. And about seven miles in the opposite direction, south on Las Vegas Blvd South ( the Las Vegas Strip ) is a volcano simulator attraction that erupts every night on the hour from about 6 PM to 11 PM in front of the Mirage Hotel Casino ( which opened about December of 1989 ).



Mirage Volcano Las Vegas!!



www.youtube.com...

Woah,Thanks to all the Youtube links.

I can imagine what they went through.

I knew a man who was in Subic when all this happened.

He had a album of photos he took after the ash cloud descended on the base and the rain tuned it in to a hard wet mess of ash.

All the buildings collapsed from the weight.

I had worked in these same buildings 5 year prior and I could not recognize the compound.

in 1974 I was stationed on Adak,Alaska.

I was looking out the front window of the fire station and had a perfect view of the volcano across the bay from the island.

I was looking at it through binoculars and noticed a wisp of smoke.

Called out to the fire chief and told him, because I thought it was going to erupt.

He looked at it and said the same exact thing.

"Well,you better go pop some popcorn, this is going to be a good show".

It did release a good snort of ash and the ground shook for about a hour or so.

The whole base was watching.

[edit on 11-8-2010 by Oneolddude]

The postal mailing zip code for Nellis AFB is 89191. Notice that the last two digits of 91 corresponds to the year 1991, when Clark Air Base was closed. There is only a one per cent chance that these two digits would match.