CHEMICAL, BIOLOGICAL, AND RADIOLOGICAL (CBR) DEFENSE

Although chemical and biological warfare has been outlawed by international agreements, the potential for such warfare is real. Likewise, radiological or nuclear warfare is an ever-present concern to the Seabees as well as all other U.S. military personnel. The first part of this chapter discusses the effects of chemical, biological, and radiological (CBR) weapons on personnel and equipment. This information includes the symptoms of CBR poisoning and its first-aid treatment. The next section discusses Seabee CBR defense responsibilities in detail. Individual protective measures and CBR defense equipment are discussed in this section. Completing the Seabee's mission while under CBR conditions is also covered in this chapter. The last two topics are CBR defense training and marking contaminated areas.

CBR Defense Readiness Policy states that mission accomplishment in a CBR environment is dependent on two basic requirements:

1. The individual Seabee must have been trained to take whatever action is necessary for survival during a CBR attack

2. Seabee units must have been trained to perform their assigned missions in a CBR-contaminated environment.

So these basic requirements can be fulfilled, CBR training needs to be integrated into all facets of individual and unit training. Sufficient training time must be allocated to ensure that actions required for initial survival and subsequent mission accomplishment are conditioned responses.

EFFECTS OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Chemical agents are used to produce death, injury, temporary incapacitation, or irritating effects. (Screening smokes are not toxic unless they are inhaled in large amounts. Incendiaries are used primarily to start fires. These two agents are not discussed further.) Broadly speaking, there are three types of antipersonnel agents: casualty, incapacitating, and harassing.

CASUALTY AGENTS are highly poisonous and are intended to kill or seriously injure. Included in this group are nerve, blister, choking, and blood agents. Nerve agents, as a group, are probably the most effective because only small doses are needed to produce death. Some agents are so persistent (when dispersed as a liquid) that they can remain effective for several days. They enter the body by the victim's breathing or swallowing or through the skin of the victim. Blister agents cause severe burns, blisters, and general destruction of body tissue. When they are inhaled, the lungs are injured. Choking agents inflame the nose, throat, and particularly the lungs. Blood agents interfere with the distribution of oxygen by the blood. Some casualty agents have a cumulative effect,

which means that successive doses add to the effect of each preceding dose. You might receive a nonlethal dose of a nerve agent, for example, followed within a few hours by another nonlethal dose. The cumulative effects of the two exposures, however, could be sufficient to cause death.

A new development is the NONLETHAL INCAPACITATING AGENT. It renders personnel incapable of performing their duties by interfering with the mental processes that control bodily functions. Reactions vary among individuals. One person might go into shock, and still another might have a feeling of extreme fatigue. These agents are difficult to detect because most of them are colorless, odorless, and tasteless.

HARASSING AGENTS include tear and vomiting gases that cause temporary disability. Tear gases are used mainly for controlling riots, but they have been used in warfare with varying degrees of success. Without a gas mask, the individual is rapidly incapacitated, but the effects disappear in 5 to 10 minutes after the person dons a protective mask or gets to fresh air.

Vomiting gases are useful when the enemy intends to launch an attack with casualty agents. They cause extreme nausea and vomiting, requiring those who have been exposed to remove their masks, thus exposing personnel to the casualty agents.