Thought I would share this with all... I know for sure one thing not to do is Panic... as listed below... and the head up wind is true along with almost everything he says here....Awarness and Vigilance is the Key!!!
Baisc information - worth reading - forget duct tape & plastic)
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A Soldier's Viewpoint on Surviving Nuclear,
Chemical and Biological Attacks
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 effect 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
And on another Note.. I think our Military Family's and the Iraq's and the rest of the World are going to find out just how bad or good Saddam has made his Chemical Concoctions... I would rather see him step down from Power and No one get killed... but he will not do this... So I would Gladly step up and test my Training to take him out of Power!!!!
Hope this Helps some!!!!
Hog
