fear/panic

[Guest guest]

This is long but I think it is very worthwhile reading, especially the

part that suggests keeping calm and non-panic.

 

Steve (Steve is in Turkey)

 

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..

 

Words of Wisdom From An Armor Master

 

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 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 its 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 wont work when its freezing, it doesn't last

when

its 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 its nothing, too much and its 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 canharm 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 Karo 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 wont 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 bloods 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. Its

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.

Its just as likely to harm the user as the target.

Soap,

water, sunshine, and fresh air are this stuffs enemy..

Bottom line on chemical weapons (its 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 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 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. Heres 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 its done its done. EMP

stands for Elector Magnetic Pulse and it will fry every electronic

device for a good distance, its 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. Its 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 kiddy 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 as 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

weeks

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 cant conceive a nation this big with this

much resources.. These weapons are made to cause panic, terror, and

to

demoralize. If wedon't run around like sheep they wont use this

stuff

after they find outits no fun. The government is going nuts over this

stuff because theyhave 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 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 Reproduction and

distribution is authorized and encouraged.. Just give me credit for

my

work..

 

Best Wishes, Michael Wells Mandeville, The Hills of Arizona USA

at mwman