Posted on 10/05/2001 5:28:17 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
By the time the Army got through training me on all this stuff, spare me the chem and bio, and hope I die quick when the nukes blow.
Armies have the means of effectively delivering and defending against bio and chemical agents, but terrorists and civilians do not. On the battlefield, it is also reletively easy to identify threats or receive warning of such (in the gulf war everybody spent most of their time in thier MOP suits and had to put their masks on everytime radar picked up a missle or aircraft headed torwards our troops - which was the only way to be sure they would have time to done their masks - trained to do so as they were).
And like I said, I spent 48 hours in a gas mask once. I'd rather just take a deep gulp of Sarin Nerve Gas than go through that pain again. All this Bio/Chem war talk is a bunch of crap.
My God! Now they're putting it in ice cream!
--Boris
Did you read "Alas, Babylon"?...Had some good ideas, if you plan ahead.
If trained soldiers, in controlled excercises, with the best equipment available can't be garanteed survival, what good is an Army Surplus mask going to do you? None. Unless you are going up against riot police armed with CS or you plan to smoke dope with it.
The dead giveaway is when the Good Humor man is wearing a RAG on his head.
One nuke is not the end of the world. Its time to survive.
Yikes, we may be in deep caca.
"Either restore the proper Allah, or get ready for a holy war." - Wiliam F. Buckley Jr., October 2, 2001.
In a major attack, civilians will probably need to be wary of water supplies (as troops and civilians commonly share the same sources) and collateral fallout.
Simple precautions such as wearing a surgical mask/paint mask will filter the generally large 1 to 8 micron biological agents, most aerosols, and the majority of radioactive dust. Boiling water and trapping the steam in a clean rag, then drinking only the water that can be wrung out of the rag can usually suffice for all non-primary target areas, too.
Avoiding dust in the aftermath will aid survival percentages, too.
Of course, none of the above will even approach 100% effectiveness. Those simple steps will reduce casualties, hower.
After that, sanitary conditions, safe food, and avoiding contaminated or roving mobs will be necessary.
But in truth, it is unlikely to ever reach such a point. At least here. I'd have to say that those living in Asia, Persia, Africa, or the Middle-East would have a higher chance of facing full-scale NBC warfare. Not only do those areas have more than their share of hated nutcases out to do each other in, but they also have to deal with the repercussions of pushing either the U.S. or Russia too far.
Got some spare rechargeable batteries for your shortwave radio? Might be the only way to get instructions if the power grid collapses; Internet sure won't be there. Got a way to heat a can of Spam and a pan of noodles when the power goes out for a few years? Got a can of Spam to heat? How about a shelter to hunker down in for a couple of years until it's safe to go outdoors? All that Civil Defense preparation in the 50s was for good reason, and that reason never went away. You were there, as was I. Unless somebody is vaporized, they have a responsibility to survive if possible. Refrigerators might be pretty low on the list of important things.
Cite:
If it is just one nuclear device, then the survivors will be moving to the communities nearby. Those communities will have a huge problem coping with a flood of refugees. If everybody prepares to some degree now, we'll do a lot better in the aftermath. Even if we are 1/2 a continent away we'll be affected to some degree. If there are 2, it won't be twice as bad, it will be extremely dislocating. If there are 4, or 8, or more . . . We're not talking suitcase nukes, we have to think of the real nukes, the big ones.
The maps are eleven years old, and reflect the Soviet Union's projected targeting of the US.
Interesting only as a historical "what-if".
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