"Real" Deal about Nuclear, Bio and Chemical Attacks
gator <nipper@etex.net>

Subject: Fw: "Real" Deal about Nuclear, Bio, and Chem Attacks by SFC 
Red
Thomas (Ret)

comfort...passed on thru several tx cousins...Shalom...

-----Original Message-----

The article is from a retired military weapons, munitions and training
expert.

The "Real" Deal about Nuclear, Bio, and Chem Attacks by SFC Red Thomas 
(Ret)

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 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 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 tissues. 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 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 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 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 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) 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

Unlimited reproduction and distribution is authorized. Just give me 
credit
for my work, and, keep in context.

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