[ WP ] A large U.S Military base in Saudi Arabia near Mecca disappears , reappears in 630 during the Conquest of Mecca .

By mid-August 2002, it was universally considered by anyone with at least one star on their uniform that Operation Desert Storm had been a dismal and abject failure. The withdrawal of United States troops from the Mecca and Medina was slated to start in 2003, but the ground troops still had another nine months of non-cooperative civilians, heat and sand to get through before they could even think of leaving. Post 9/11, tensions were high both inside and outside the military bases. 
 
 
 National polls indicated that not only were non-Muslim soldiers unwanted in Saudi Arabia, but their lives were in danger. The F-15Es parked on the orange sand were guarded religiously, while communications between U.N. representatives and army generals became fraught with unspoken malice. But when the Prince Sultan Air Base disappeared from the face of the earth, taking the 101st Airborne division with it, those fraught nerves became a global disaster. 
 
 
 A sandstorm had moved during the night: all communications with the base ceased at four minutes past two in the morning. The Secretary-General of the U.N was alerted fifty-four seconds after George W. Bush, and they were on the phone with each other by three am. Bush had some trouble understanding the situation, and for once he was not alone. Airbases do *not* simply disappear. 
 
 
 
 Meanwhile, at the Prince Sultan Airbase, now several degrees further west and several hundred years in the past, the ground forces were stirring.
