Stunning Mount Etna eruption wows volcano enthusiasts

My parents were at Clark AFB during the Pinatubo eruption. They shelled out a few thousand for a transporting company to ship their household goods. They rode a taxi to Manila. Somehow a hooker got a ride with them. A Filipino man reached into the taxi to rip the gold necklace off my dads neck. I guess the necklace was too thick to break. When they reached the US the AF said they would not pay for the transportation of the household goods due to a lack of orders. Well duh! A congressional fixed that. It was months and they did not get their household goods an thought it was all stolen. They had some very nice furniture and art to include photo albums. One day it all showed up and nothing was missing. Most all of the American families lost everything. From what I remember the volcanologists were pretty accurate in their predictions.

I currently live within sight of Vesuvius, and once had a spectacular view of Rainer when I was stationed at JBLM. Etna is the most active Volcano in Europe. It is more active then the White Island Volcano in New Zealand. It's last major eruption was roughly 18 months ago. While video and photo's make it seem the towns are really close to it, the truth is there is a huge valley between Etna and the towns, and the towns are much further distant then Pompei and Herculeum were to Vesuvius.

I remember very clearly Mt. St. Helens, not only the original eruption in 1980 when I was a senior in college working on my degree in geology, but later when flying out of NAS Whidbey Island and having to get the ash forecasts. Volcanoes are so cool and so violent, and have such great potential to completely alter our current plans and ideas.