A Soldier's Viewpoint on Surviving Nuclear, Chemical and Biological
Attacks
From: SFC Red Thomas (Ret)
Armor Master Gunner
Mesa, AZ
Unlimited reproduction and distribution is authorized. Just give me
credit for my work, and, keep in context.
Since the media has decided to scare everyone with predictions of
chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare on our turf I decided to write
a paper and keep things in their proper perspective. I am a retired
military weapons, munitions, and training expert.
Lesson number one: In the mid 1990s there were a series of nerve gas
attacks on crowded Japanese subway stations. Given perfect conditions
for an attack less than 10% of the people there were injured (the
injured were better in a few hours) and only one percent of the injured
died.
60 Minutes once had a fellow telling us that one drop of nerve gas
could kill a thousand people, well he didn't tell you the thousand dead
people per drop was theoretical.
Drill Sergeants exaggerate how terrible this stuff was to keep the
recruits awake in class (I know this because I was a Drill Sergeant
too). Forget everything you've ever seen on TV, in the movies, or read
in a novel about this stuff, it was all a lie (read this sentence again
out loud!). These weapons are about terror, if you remain calm, you
will probably not die. This is far less scary than the media and
their "Experts," make it sound.
Chemical Weapons
Chemical weapons are categorized as nerve, blood, blister, and
Incapacitating agents. Contrary to the hype of reporters and
politicians they are not weapons of mass destruction they are "area
denial," and terror weapons that don't destroy anything. When you leave
the area you almost always leave the risk. That's the difference; you
can leave the area and the risk but soldiers may have to stay put and
sit through it and that's why they need all that spiffy gear.
These are not gasses, they are vapors and/or air borne particles. The
agent must be delivered in sufficient quantity to kill/injure, and that
defines when/how it's used. Every day we have a morning and evening
inversion where "stuff," suspended in the air gets pushed down. This
inversion is why allergies (pollen) and air pollution are worst at
these times of the day.
So, a chemical attack will have it's best effect an hour of so either
side of sunrise/sunset. Also, being vapors and airborne particles they
are heavier than air so they will seek low places like ditches,
basements and underground garages. This stuff won't work when it's
freezing, it doesn't last when it's hot, and wind spreads it too thin
too fast. They've got to get this stuff on you, or, get you to inhale
it for it to work. They also have to get the concentration of chemicals
high enough to kill or wound you. Too little and it's nothing, too much
and it's wasted.
What I hope you've gathered by this point is that a chemical weapons
attack that kills a lot of people is incredibly hard to do with
military grade agents and equipment so you can imagine how hard it will
be for terrorists. The more you know about this stuff the more you
realize how hard it is to use.
We'll start by talking about nerve agents. You have these in your
house, plain old bug killer (like Raid) is nerve agent. All nerve
agents work the same way; they are cholinesterase inhibitors that mess
up the signals your nervous system uses to make your body function. It
can harm you if you get it on your skin but it works best if they can
get you to inhale it. If you don't die in the first minute and you can
leave the area you're probably gonna live. The military's antidote for
all nerve agents is atropine and pralidoxime chloride. Neither one of
these does anything to cure the nerve agent, they send your body into
overdrive to keep you alive for five minutes,
after that the agent is used up. Your best protection is fresh air and
staying calm.
Listed below are the symptoms for nerve agent poisoning:
Sudden headache, Dimness of vision (someone you're looking at will have
pinpointed pupils), runny nose, excessive saliva or drooling,
difficulty breathing, tightness in chest, nausea, stomach cramps,
twitching of exposed skin where a liquid just got on you.
If you are in public and you start experiencing these symptoms, first
ask yourself, did anything out of the ordinary just happen, a loud pop,
did someone spray something on the crowd? Are other people getting sick
too? Is there an odor of new mown hay, green corn, something fruity, or
camphor where it shouldn't be? If the answer is yes, then calmly (if
you panic you breathe faster and inhale more air/poison) leave the area
and head up wind, or, outside.
Fresh air is the best "right now antidote." If you have a blob of
liquid that looks like molasses or Kayro syrup on you; blot it or
scrape it off and away from yourself with anything disposable. This
stuff works based on your body weight, what a crop duster uses to kill
bugs won't hurt you unless you stand there and breathe it in real deep,
then lick the residue off the ground for a while. Remember they have to
do all the work, they have to get the concentration up and keep it up
for several minutes while all you have to do is quit getting it on
you/quit breathing it by putting space between you and the attack.
Blood agents are cyanide or arsine which affect your blood's ability to
provide oxygen to your tissue. The scenario for attack would be the
same as nerve agent. Look for a pop or someone splashing/spraying
something and folks around there getting woozy/falling down. The
telltale smells are bitter almonds or garlic where it shouldn't be. The
symptoms are blue lips, blue under the fingernails rapid breathing.
The military's antidote is amyl nitride and just like nerve agent
antidote it just keeps your body working for five minutes till the
toxins are used up. Fresh air is the your best individual chance.
Blister agents (distilled mustard) are so nasty that nobody wants to
even handle it let alone use it. It's almost impossible to handle
safely and may have delayed effect of up to 12 hours. The attack
scenario is also limited to the things you'd see from other chemicals.
If you do get large, painful blisters for no apparent reason, don't pop
them, if you must, don't let the liquid from the blister get on any
other area, the stuff just keeps on spreading. It's just as likely to
harm the user as the target. Soap, water, sunshine, and fresh air are
this stuff's enemy.
Bottom line on chemical weapons (it's the same if they use industrial
chemical spills); they are intended to make you panic, to terrorize
you, to heard you like sheep to the wolves. If there is an attack,
leave the area and go upwind, or to the sides of the wind stream. They
have to get the stuff to you, and on you. You're more likely to be hurt
by a drunk driver on any given day than be hurt by one of these
attacks. Your odds get better if you leave the area. Soap, water, time,
and fresh air really deal this stuff a knock-out-punch. Don't let fear
of an isolated attack rule your life. The odds are really on your side.
Nuclear Weapons
Nuclear bombs. These are the only weapons of mass destruction on earth.
The effects of a nuclear bomb are heat, blast, EMP, and radiation. If
you see a bright flash of light like the sun, where the sun isn't, fall
to the ground! The heat will be over a second. Then there will be two
blast waves, one out going, and one on it's way back. Don't stand up to
see what happened after the first wave; anything that's going to happen
will have happened in two full minutes.
These will be low yield devices and will not level whole cities. If you
live through the heat, blast, and initial burst of radiation, you'll
probably live for a very, very long time. Radiation will not create
fifty foot tall women, or giant ants and grass hoppers the size of
tanks. These will be at the most 1 kiloton bombs; that's the equivalent
of 1,000 tons of TNT.
Here's the real deal, flying debris and radiation will kill a lot of
exposed (not all!) people within a half mile of the blast. Under
perfect conditions this is about a half mile circle of death and
destruction, but, when it's done it's done. EMP stands for Electro
Magnetic Pulse and it will fry every electronic device for a good
distance, it's impossible to say what and how far but probably not over
a couple of miles from ground zero is a good guess. Cars, cell phones,
computers, ATMs, you name it, all will be out of order.
There are lots of kinds of radiation, you only need to worry about
three, the others you have lived with for years. You need to worry
about "Ionizing radiation," these are little sub atomic particles that
go whizzing along at the speed of light. They hit individual cells in
your body, kill the nucleus and keep on going. That's how you get
radiation poisoning, you have so many dead cells in your body that the
decaying cells poison you.
It's the same as people getting radiation treatments for cancer, only a
bigger area gets radiated. The good news is you don't have to just sit
there and take it, and there's lots you can do rather than panic.
First; your skin will stop alpha particles, a page of a news paper or
your clothing will stop beta particles, you just gotta try and avoid
inhaling dust that's contaminated with atoms that are emitting these
things and you'll be generally safe from them.
Gamma rays are particles that travel like rays (quantum physics makes
my brain hurt) and they create the same damage as alpha and beta
particles only they keep going and kill lots of cells as they go all
the way through your body. It takes a lot to stop these things, lots of
dense material, on the other hand it takes a lot of this to kill you.
Your defense is as always to not panic. Basic hygiene and normal
preparation are your friends. All canned or frozen food is safe to eat.
The radiation poisoning will not effect plants so fruits and vegetables
are OK if there's no dust on em (rinse em off if there is). If you
don't have running water and you need to collect rain water or use
water from wherever, just let it sit for thirty minutes and skim off
the water gently from the top. The dust with the bad stuff in it will
settle and the remaining water can be used for the toilet which will
still work if you have a bucket of water to pour in the
tank.
Biological Weapons
Finally there's biological warfare. There's not much to cover here.
Basic personal hygiene and sanitation will take you further than a
million doctors. Wash your hands often, don't share drinks, food,
sloppy kisses, etc., .... with strangers. Keep your garbage can with a
tight lid on it, don't have standing water (like old buckets, ditches,
or kiddie pools) laying around to allow mosquitoes breeding room. This
stuff is carried by vectors, that is bugs, rodents, and contaminated
material. If biological warfare is so easy as the TV makes it sound,
why has Saddam Hussein spent twenty years, millions, and millions of
dollars trying to get it right? If you're clean of person and home you
eat well and are active you're gonna live.
Overall preparation for any terrorist attack is the same as you'd take
for a big storm. If you want a gas mask, fine, go get one. I know this
stuff and I'm not getting one and I told my Mom not to bother with one
either (how's that for confidence). We have a week's worth of cash,
several days worth of canned goods and plenty of soap and water. We
don't leave stuff out to attract bugs or rodents so we don't have them.
These people can't conceive a nation this big with this much resources.
These weapons are made to cause panic, terror, and to demoralize. If we
don't run around like sheep they won't use this stuff after they find
out it's no fun. The government is going nuts over this stuff because
they have to protect every inch of America. You've only gotta protect
yourself, and by doing that, you help the country.
Finally, there are millions of caveats to everything I wrote here and
you can think up specific scenarios where my advice isn't the best.
This letter is supposed to help the greatest number of people under the
greatest number of situations. If you don't like my work, don't nit
pick, just sit down and explain chemical, nuclear, and biological
warfare in a document around three pages long yourself. This is how we
the people of the United States can rob these people of their most
desired goal, your terror.
SFC Red Thomas (Ret)
Armor Master Gunner
Mesa, AZ
this can save your life-bio/chemical terrorism
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