Posted by: SeaKingTacco
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Say, how did they use real agents in your training like nerve and blister? I was under the impression nerve agents can cause permanent damage to your body even if your only exposed for a very brief period. If it's possible, could you give us your story of the training?
Joe-
They didn't use real agents to train you during your BMQ. Certain substances (Mosquito repellant with DEET springs immediately to mind) share many of the same chemical properties as a Nerve agent and will trigger a positive on three-way paper.
As for chemical agents scaring you- they should not. The whole point of NBC warfare is to cause a "panic" reaction in your opponent when the agent is used. Yes, there are some really scary agents out there, but most of them break down fairly quickly when exposed to weathering. When used, they also tend to affect small geographical areas only. Our gear is amongst the best PPE in the world. Just learn the drills and try not to worry about it overly much.
Cheers
Yeah I know we didn't use real agents for our BMQ, we didn't use anything at all. I was asking HIM about the live-agents, and yeah they warned us that bug repellant etc etc will set the stuff off...
Posted by: Infanteer
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Have you went into the Gas Hut, Joe? I am assuming not, seeing how you are doing a weekend course....
We're going to the gas hut either April 15 weekend or April 29th weekend... My goal is simply to try and not be the first one in!
Posted by: Matt_Fisher
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Quote from: Pte (R) Joe on Today at 12:40:26
Seriously though, it really scared me. The day I'm walking around in a combat area and one of those 3-way papers or ANY detector changes colour etc, I'll cause a biohazard to myself because I'll poop my pants... It's pretty scary stuff but I'm glad to know our equipment works.
You want to talk about pucker factor?
Imagine being in northern Kuwait in March of 2003. From a restless sleep inside your sand and dust coated mod tent the NBC Alarm goes off. You start to hear people shouting "Get to the f*cking bunker, there's been a Scud launch!" You and your buddies scramble to don your MOPP suits and sprint for the bunker. As you look up into the sky you realize that this time is not a drill. The heavens are lit up as if it's some whacked out fireworks display. From over the horizon you can see the Patriot batteries firing off everything they've got in the hopes that they'll hit the incoming Scud. Just when you don't think your heart can beat any faster it suddenly goes into overdrive and your body is jolted forward as the adrenaline begins to flow into your bloodstream at rates which you've never experienced before. You slam face down in pit of the pre-cast conrete and sandbag stacked air-raid bunker as you've tripped over somebody's ankles. Panicking as your mask has been pushed halfway down your face you quickly readjust the seal, and go through your purging procedures. Fear grips your psyche; "Did I inhale without the mask on?" "How long before nerve agent take effect?" "How the **** are they going to tell if my eyeballs are dilating or constricting if I've been exposed...this place is a f*cking black hole...Did anybody bring a flashlight? Will the atropine work?" Then you have nothing to do but wait. Seconds become minutes which become lifetimes. You begin to relax a bit in that your pulse is slowing and your breathing, while labored from the rubber diaphragm of the mask and canister filter, is slowing down to a more regular rate.
Then you hear a something that causes fear to grip your soul and proceed to try and rip it out of your living being, a sound that you believe to be the very gates of Hades opening and the exodus of Satan's minions has begun...An increasing mechanical scream builds. It's somewhat like the familar arty sim you've grown so accustomed to during your training, but this is different. It's deeper, more menacing. Not the shrill whistle, but more of a deep whooshing whup-whup-whup that builds like a freight train and then a dull thud followed by silence, only broken by the Darth Vader like breathing patterns of the Marines huddled around you in the bunker.
What had been a scud missile has landed some 2 miles from your position, but 2 miles too close for comfort given the fears of some sinister chemical agent oozing out of the battered carcass of the missile.
Eventually, the all-clear is given once the remnants of the missile have been checked for evidence of chemical and biological agents and the site is cleared uncontaminated. You've never been so scared and you've never felt so alive. You and your buddies start laughing about the whole episode, as laughter amongst your brothers is the best form of reassurance to a frightened soul.
Pucker factor...you better believe it.
You painted a very dark and frightening picture in my mind of what you went through... The idea of NBC warfare I think has me frightened more so far than any aspect of the training or combat scenarios so far. Having someone shoot at you is obviously going to get your blood pumping, but at least if your shot in the typical "mid section" you probably will die pretty quick... I'm hoping, unless you can be fixed. With the N part of NBC you'd die fast also if your within about 50 miles of a fairly modern Nuke attack (500-700Megaton load)... BC is the scariest part.
Matt, I read a book called "Jarhead" about a Scout/Sniper marine who was in Iraq, very very interesting read. He talked about how those MOPP suits are suppose to be good enough for a marine/soldier to work at full combat effectiveness for 8hrs or so... But they played football in them to show off to the media as an excercise and were exhausted after 30 mins of playing. Basically he said that it was bullsh*t you could last at full combat effectiveness for more than 1/2 tops. Dunno how true that is, course you folks were fighting in a desert so I imagine the heat makes things WAY worse...
You ever see those beautiful little camel spiders Matt???
I heard they like sleeping with you guys in your tents...
Like I said though, glad to hear the equipent works as well as they said it does, cause the stuff we were shown+put on+trained with and taught with was in complete tatters, with tape and crap all over it. He said we had old crappy one's because it's only for training+because we're a Pres BMQ, makes sense to me, just glad it actually works that's all.
