Preparing for War Part V: Forget the plastic sheets (Chemical attack seriously overrated)

Sierra Times ^ | 2/16/03 | Red Thomas (weapons expert)

[hoosierskypilot]

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.

*****

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 its 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.

******

Bottom line on chemical weapons (it's the same if they use industrial chemical pills); 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.

[hoosierskypilot]

I wonder if I can get my money back for the 20 rolls of duct tape I bought?

[Britton J Wingfield]

Don't worry, you'll use it eventually :)

I went through NBC/CBR warfare school myself, and this guy is dead on.

[WOSG]

good explanation - i read it and thought "subway would be good target" and then remembered that is what the Japanese nutter did with a chemical poison in Tokyo.

[Admin Moderator]

Let's stick with original titles to avoid duplicate threads.
Thank you

[hoosierskypilot]

O.B.K.B.

[Myrddin]

While you're feeling good, remember that Saddam has 16 tons of VX. There is no evidence of its destruction. A droplet that is half the width of a human hair that lands on your skin will kill you in 20 minutes. The military has atropine and a complementary substance to inject immediately upon exposure.

[Brad’s Gramma]

20?????

hahahahahaha

(we bought a case) JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!

[hoosierskypilot]

Don't worry, you'll use it eventually

I have used duct tape for canoes, tents, screens, bicycle tires, shoes, and everything but duct work.

[hoosierskypilot]

BTW, in that case, you might want to dump the "team Jihad" in parenthesis on my post about the FBI alert for the canadian 18 wheeler. That is, unless you allow a parenthetical addition.

[GOPJ]

bump

[Admin Moderator]

That is, unless you allow a parenthetical addition.

Those are ok.

[Cvengr]

This assessment is highly dependent upon the actual threat, the persons and their resources implementing such an attack.

NBC schooling in the US military fairly much assumes the major threats will use military grade systems. They've been designed for simple deployment with a relative degree of safety by personnel not rigorously trained in chemistry or engineering principles.

An analogy might be thought of the dangers using HCl as a weapon. If deployed as a weapon, one would probably deploy something between Muriatic Acid (Swimming pool Chlorine compounds like HTH) to perhaps a concentrated Clorox bleach, while a chemist, in isolated numbers might generate something closer to a tanker truck of material 10-100 times as concentrated than those products.

The situation though can go further than this analogy. Limited attacks (and this is a key word...limited) might use considerably more dangerous compounds and delivery mechanisms than military handled artillery shells or bombs.

Something closer to Bhopal, India might fall into that realm of threat.

With this said, the increased damage locally by such a device might be more lethal than military grade weapons, BUT it is probably also the case that such deployments by terrorists would be much more limited in scope than military devices.

Similar to the World Trade Center, the bad guys didn't contiue beyond that one day event,...instead they'll have to resort to other types of attacks. Nevertheless, increased building safety and bags searches didn't preclude such an attack from being successful when it happened.

IMHO, The best way to fight this threat is to identify the type of willpower and justification used to commit such an attack and defeat it at the root and/or label those with such attitudes as the threat.

[davetex]

You can never, and I mean never have too much duct tape.
It's cheap, it's usefull, it's good for all kinds of stuff,
and it lasts forever (well almost). Do we really know when
we might have to duct tape a 40 foot sinkhole? I think not. Catastrofic events happen all the time, you've got to be ready.

[Mike Darancette]

A successful chemical attack will take place in an enclosed area such as a shopping mall, building, tunnel or subway.

They are not going to release poison gas in the suburbs.