I've copied the entire content of the article as it was provided to me via a distribution to the Emergency Services and Management Community.
It's an interesting perspective.
Diligence
*********************
14-Feb-2003
Taking the Terror out of Terror Weapons
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 (TV) 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 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 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 outgoing, 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
It's an interesting perspective.
Diligence
*********************
14-Feb-2003
Taking the Terror out of Terror Weapons
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 (TV) 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 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 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 outgoing, 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