SEAL Survival Guide (24 page)

3. Use the front of your car. The way new cars are designed, hitting something head-on offers more protection than taking a blow from the side. The side panels of cars are usually less fortified.

4. Steer smoothly. Just as you don’t want to jam the breaks, you don’t want to jerk the steering wheel quickly (even if driving at normal speeds). This will cause the vehicle to skid and oftentimes spin in the opposite direction.

• If the car begins to skid, your instincts will falsely tell you to turn the steering wheel in the opposite direction. In fact, it’s best to turn the wheel toward the direction of the skid to regain control.

5. Sometimes you may need to accelerate while you steer or weave out of range of an oncoming car to avoid an accident.

Tire Blowouts

If you are dealing with a blowout or get a flat while driving, do not slam on the brakes. Let off the gas and allow your car to gradually
decelerate on its own while steering at a slight angle toward the shoulder of the road you are on.

Postaccident

After the accident, if you are conscious, you want to exit the vehicle quickly. However, assess the area in which the accident occurred. For example, you do not want to step out into oncoming traffic. If the air bag deployed, the interior of the car will be filled with talcum powder. When the air bags deploy, a small explosive charge ignites two chemicals that react to form the nitrogen that is used to fill the air bag. The smell of that chemical reaction is unfamiliar to most, and that, combined with the talcum powder filling the car’s interior, causes many people to think the car is on fire. That usually isn’t the case. If the car is truly on fire, the smoke will most likely be dark and oily. Remain calm and go into combat breathing. If you can leave the car, chances are your injuries are not life-threatening. Even if you find yourself trapped within the vehicle, you must still retain your wits; try to stay conscious by telling yourself that you can endure and that help will arrive shortly. No matter the pain, know that feeling anything is a good sign. You are alive.

BIOCHEMICAL ATTACK

In 1995, in Tokyo, Japan, a religious group released sarin, a deadly nerve gas, on several lines of the Tokyo metro during rush hour. Crowds fled packed subways, gagged, vomited, and collapsed on the streets during the chemical attack, which killed twelve people and caused thousands of severe injuries. The same group had used the nerve gas a year before. Sarin was released from trucks, targeting a neighborhood where judges lived who were about to pass a verdict in a real estate case that was not favorable to the sect. Eight died from that incident. For the Tokyo metro operation, small pouches of sarin were dropped and punctured by sharpened umbrella tips.

The use of biological and chemical weapons is nothing new to warfare. In the 1300s, invading Tartars used a form of biotoxin when besieging cites. They gathered bodies infected with bubonic plague and catapulted the corpses over the walls of enemy fortresses. In 1972, an ecoterrorist group called RISE tried to disperse microbial pathogens using crop-dusting aircraft. Biological and chemical attacks use various toxic agents to cause massive casualties, and although they are often dispersed differently, survival methods for both scenarios are similar.

Biological toxins are designed to spread pathogens that cause disease, while in chemical warfare liquids or gases are employed that are meant to cause the body to malfunction rapidly. In any regard, such attacks are considered highly probable to occur in the United States in the near future. As mentioned, disbursement methods vary, but experts agree that in order for these biochemical agents to be effective and cause massive contamination, the agent must be something that is quickly absorbed by the skin or inhaled, or something ingested that lacks taste, color, or smell.

Early Signs

Here is another incident when situational awareness is of paramount importance. The earlier that biological toxins or chemical agents are detected, the better your odds of survival. As mentioned, in situational awareness exercises, you note variances against the baseline, or what is normal. To detect biochemical attacks, you need to pay attention to oddities or unusual things in the environment.

Chemical agents will frequently give signs of exposure within minutes or hours. They are generally liquids, often aerosolized, and most have a unique odor and color. Biological agents usually have no odor or color and can be in either liquid or powder form.

Biopathogens introduced into water supplies, for example, can take days to be noticed. For instance, when anthrax, often delivered in powder form, is used it generally takes two to five days before symptoms appear.

Some examples of possible preattack warning signs:

• Surfaces covered with an oily substance.

• Liquid sprays dispersing from unlikely areas.

• The presence of vapor clouds. These could appear as unusually low-lying clouds or as a colored fog that is unrelated to weather. You could see clouds of dust suspended over an area and drifting in a manner unlike any natural occurrence.

• A large number of birds, fish, or small animals suddenly found dead.

• An odor that seems out of place but isn’t necessarily foul smelling. You may smell something similar to almonds or peach kernels, or fresh-cut grass or hay. If you are on a farm, this may be normal, but in a city, for example, a sudden smell of mowed lawn drifting through the streets should be cause for alarm.

• Trucks spraying or dispersing mist, or low-flying, crop-dusting-type aircraft in unusual areas or without preannouncement. For example, mosquito-spraying trucks and their nightly routes are announced and made public.

• Someone entering a building or public transportation, like a stadium or a subway car, for example, dressed unusually (such as a person wearing a long-sleeved shirt or overcoat in the summertime). If you see someone wearing breathing-protection equipment, particularly in areas where large numbers of people are gathered, then treat the suspect as a potential disperser of toxins. If his breathing equipment is already in place, chances are the toxins have already been released. Rapidly leave the area and notify police.

• Multiple people nearby suddenly vomiting, convulsing, having difficulty breathing, or acting confused and disoriented. This means a chemical attack has already begun.

How to Protect Yourself and Escape

The quicker-acting chemical toxins are designed to cause an immediate inhalation hazard. On the other hand, many chemicals of this nature also break down and lose potency rapidly when exposed to the sun, diluted with water, or dissipated in high winds. However, you will not know the difference at the time, so reacting quickly and gaining distance from a biological or chemical agent is the key to survival. The next decisions you make will be the difference between living and dying.

1. Unlike professional firefighters or those of us in the teams, you are not likely to have protective gear on hand, so you’ll have to make do.

• Take maximum effort to cover your mouth and nose. Use your shirt, a coat sleeve, a handkerchief—even a plastic shopping bag will provide some form of protection.

• Minimize exposure to all body parts by covering arms and legs, tucking your pants into your socks, and raising your collar, and most importantly check that any cut or abrasion is thoroughly bandaged. If you are wearing shorts or a dress, try to find anything to cover your legs—plastic garbage bags, a blanket, the fabric stripped from an umbrella—even newspapers will minimize exposure.

2. Get off the X. Attempt to figure out where the toxic agent is emanating from by noting any of the unusual signs mentioned above, and move as far away as possible without passing through the contaminated area. When evacuating the area, make sure you move
upwind,
or
into the wind.
Downwind a greater concentration of toxins will be heading in that direction, carried by natural air currents.
Quickly assess the direction of the wind by holding out a piece of thin paper, looking for a flag, or watching how trash in the street is tumbling. The only time you would not move upwind is when you know for certain the source of the disbursement, which always dictates moving in the opposite direction.

3. During flight, resist the temptation to take deep breaths to smell if the air is “all clear.” Wear protective breathing apparatus or keep your mouth and nose covered for as long as possible.

Shelter In

Getting off the X might mean you are forced to move indoors and “shelter in.” Most toxic agents are heavier than air and tend to settle and stay close to the ground. You want to make your indoor evacuation by heading upward to a safe haven.

1. Get to an interior room on a higher floor.

2. Shut down all air-conditioning or heating systems.

• If in a car, shut off air or heating, close air-intake vents on the dashboard, and roll up windows. If you detect or believe toxic fumes or a gas has entered your car, then keep the windows open fully while driving away from the exposure site. Once the car is sufficiently aerated, then close windows.

3. Ensure all windows are closed and sealed tightly. Use duct tape to cover seams.