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 its 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 going to 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 affects 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 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 its
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
are 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 got to 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 affect
plants so fruits and vegetables are OK if there's no dust on them (rinse them
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 are 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 going to 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
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
SFC Red Thomas
(Ret)
Armor Master Gunner
Mesa, AZ