NoSSN - "Real" Deal about Nuclear, Bio, and Chem Attacks

"Real" Deal about Nuclear, Bio, and Chem Attacks
October 19, 2001

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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 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 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 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.

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.

"... there is much truth in the Italian saying, 'Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you.'" -- Benjamin Franklin

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