All,
Don't know how accurate this is but it has the ring of truth. Just remember
to pray, seek God, and be wise as serpents, gentle as doves.
Eat the hay spit out the sticks.
--
Gary Burn'n Heart
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The "Real" Deal about Nuclear, Bio, and Chem Attacks
Lesson number one: In the mid 1990's 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 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. 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
airborne 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 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 upwind 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 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 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
herd 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
knockout punch. Don't let fear of an isolated attack rule your life. The
odds are really on your side.
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 grasshoppers 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 impossibleto 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 subatomic 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 newspaper 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 damageas 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.
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)
lying 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 asyou'd take
for a big storm. If you want a gas mask, fine, goget 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 nitpick. 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
Unlimited reproduction and
distribution is authorized. Just
give me credit for my work, and, keep
in context.
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