SEAL Survival Guide (25 page)

What to Do If You’ve Been Exposed

You must begin decontamination procedures as soon as you have cleared the area of the attack.

1. Remove all of your clothes immediately. Do so by pulling them
down and away
. Don’t pull them over your head because the eyes, nose, and mouth are then more susceptible to exposure. If you are wearing a pullover-type garment that cannot be stepped out of and has no buttons, zipper, or snaps, then cut it with scissors or a knife, or tear the garment, though always in a downward direction. This should get rid of 90 percent of any agents to which you have been exposed. Have a plastic bag at hand and put the clothes into it while undressing. Seal the bag immediately.

2. Wash. You want to find any source of water, be it an outdoor fountain, hose spigot, or body of water. If indoors, use soap and cold water and wash yourself down thoroughly yet gently—you do not want to scrub abrasively, as this will open skin pores and increase toxin exposure. It’s best if you can make a mix of water, soap, and a touch of bleach or chlorine. This will help disinfect your skin and neutralize toxin concentrations. Remember to flush nostrils,
clean ears, and wash all cracks and crevices of your body. If in a tub, make sure this water is flushed away and the area afterward cleaned. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

3. If you do not have water available, talcum powder can be used, or even flour will act as a dry wash and absorb toxins. When using a dry cleanser, cover your body in it and let it stand for about thirty seconds. Brush it off with whatever you have, be it cloth or gauze, and repeat this. Make sure to seal these cleaning rags in plastic bags. If outdoors, mud can be used as a form of nonabrasive cleaner, as long as it’s retrieved at least twelve inches below the surface. Let some of the mud harden. In doing so it will absorb toxins from the outer layer of the skin. But remember, flake off or gently brush away whatever substance you use to clean exposed areas. Don’t rub your skin too roughly, as abrasion will cause more toxins to enter.

• Remember: Any item that has been on the ground during the toxic assault should be considered contaminated and not good for decontamination purposes. For example, using a newspaper you found on the street could potentially only introduce more of the toxin into your system versus removing it.

4. Seek medical assistance as soon as possible.

BOMB

A bomb is any of a number of explosive devices both civilian and military that rely on an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. They can be low-explosive, high-explosive, or nuclear. They can be positioned in advance for follow-on detonation, dropped from the air, or even precision guided. For the purposes of this section, we will focus on the types of bombs that are most commonly used by terrorists to inflict injury and death.

Car Bomb

In early maritime warfare, ships packed with gunpowder were set on fire and cast adrift toward enemy fleets. These bomb ships or fire ships were a hit-or-miss tactic. Most times the fire was extinguished before it ignited the combustibles aboard. The Dutch sent dozens of these bomb ships, called Hellburners, packed with seven thousand pounds of gunpowder, to ultimately break the Spanish blockade at the Siege of Antwerp in the 1500s. In the 1920s, Communist anarchists parked a horse-drawn cart filled with explosives in the financial district of New York City, killing thirty-eight. Car bombs were used by the Vietcong in Vietnam, and also by terrorists in both Palestine and Israel.

Car bombs have been used to kill people for more than a hundred years, but not to the extent and unfortunate effectiveness that we have seen in Afghanistan and Iraq against our troops. Today, the car bomb is known as a VBIED, or vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, and has been responsible for the death or injury of tens of thousands of people, including, most regrettably, many of our armed forces. More than 60 percent of all U.S. casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq were caused by car bombs or IEDs (improvised explosive devices).

SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

The most important weapon against car bombs is situational awareness. Again, alertness is one of the most vital and key tools needed to acquire a SEAL mindset. In the case of detecting a possible car bomb, ask yourself questions such as these:

 Why did the driver park in a no-parking zone, park awkwardly, or park in haste?

 Why did the driver park in front of a certain business or building, but head in the opposite direction from it?

 Why does the vehicle appear to be heavy (low-sitting suspension)?

Since the car bomb is such a cheap and effective way to do harm and cause chaos, incidents of this nature can only increase. Economical handheld technological inventions are being tested that will offer a way to detect whether or not a car contains explosives. Perhaps there will be a day when these detectors will be as common as smoke alarms in the house. Until then, situational awareness is our best weapon.

The main problem with situational awareness being the best defense is that detection of a car bomb will require an
exceptional
degree of alertness in everyday life. Any vehicle can become a car bomb once it is loaded with explosives. The metal of the car itself turns into shrapnel. More than the explosive, the shredded car parts cause the most widespread and indiscriminate damage, killing anyone near it. Explosives used in car bombs could be ammunition, pyrotechnics,
or dynamite. These don’t require ingenious concealment and are simply placed under the seat, put in the trunk, or magnetically attached underneath the car. The charges can be detonated by numerous means: timers, ignitions, the opening of doors, the pressing of brakes or accelerators, switches (tilt, pressure), or remote devices (such as cell phones).