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 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 1% 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
or 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 a 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 pin-pointed 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 a 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 amylnitride and just like the
nerve agent antidote, it just keeps your body working for
five minutes until 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 a 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 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 in 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 50-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
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 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
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 30 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 20 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
many 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
Pass this on--the better informed we are, the better off we'll
be!!!