“Nuclear Blast to your Front!  React!” – How the Army Trains to Survive an ‘Atomic Battlefield’

The title of this article is the exact preparatory command (situation), and the command of execution given to us in the Army to drill a nuclear attack.  Readers, we all hope every day that our “society does not come to a screeching halt via a nuclear attack.  But what if it does?  OK, we’ve “gamed” it from a perspective that you haven’t become a shadow-silhouette on a burned wall and been vaporized…that you’re not living in a “ground zero” targeted area.  If you are, then you have several options beforehand: if there’s warning, bug out and get out of the blast area, or move out of the area to a place that is not a target.

Their will be skeptics, and their ilk that will ask a litany of questions like: “How are you gonna save everyone?”, “What about those who can’t afford property…?”,  “Yeah, like we’re going to get warning!”

AD INFINITVM, AD NAVSEVM.

Survival is not a guarantee.

Are you’re willing to examine your lifestyle and do what it takes?  Make the necessary changes and act?  That is called “adaptation,” and it is what has enabled the species to survive…the minority who emerge from the rubble when the skeptical majority are dead.  We’re talking “hardball,” here, and it is “sink or swim,” although we don’t shoot for that…we want others to make it through…but there comes a time when you must cut your losses and take care of you and yours.

Related: 15 Priorities You Need to Follow In the Event of a Nuclear War

If you’re willing to do what it takes (sometimes in the face of skepticism and even ridicule) and go “against the grain,” you may give yourself the edge helping you survive.

Enough said there.  What if the worst does happen, and you happen to be five to ten miles away from a blast?  Skeptics, we do have information that will work besides the results of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: the “Atomic Soldiers” of the United States armed forces.  Yes, during the 1950’s, whole battalions were emplaced in the southwestern deserts of the U.S. and subjected to be the “test” subjects of nuclear explosions.  Those tests were real, and the results they generated were real.  We don’t want it to have been for nothing: take the knowledge they earned, and use it.

The U.S. Army Training Tips for Surviving an Atomic Battlefield

FM 21-75, a publication of the Department of the Army, entitled “Combat Training of the Individual Soldier and Patrolling” was released in June of 1957.  Chapter 7 is the point of focus, entitled “Survival on the Atomic Battlefield.”  This 10-page chapter enumerates many good techniques of what to do that can be adapted to civilian life and society when the split-second decision time comes down the pike.  Excellent diagrams relevant to situations: in the open, flat on the ground, behind a small rise, in a ditch, behind a wall, and in a prepared shelter of some kind.

We’ll condense some of it for those who may not be able to pick up one of these into some finer points, and add other:

1. Think and act fast. Seek the closest available protection.  Do not try to reach distant shelter initially.
2. Remain in that initial posture for protection for at least 10 seconds to avoid the blast, heat, and debris.
3. If you’re in the open, flatten and face in the direction of the explosion with your face down against the ground and covering over your head and face with your hands/forearms
4. You need to seek shelter within the first 12 to 24 hours, as radioactive particles in the form of dust will settle back down to earth in-line with wind and weather patterns.
5. Radiation begins to deteriorate rapidly, however, you need to make plans of being in a permanent and shielded shelter with enough supplies to last for a month.
6. The more shielding/earth/material between yourself and the detonation, the better a chance you will have to make it…and this also includes fallout…it is mass that blocks radiation from penetration.
7. BIGGIE! Prior to anything happening during your routine/daily tasks, study everything around you before an attack!   This means to know where your fallout shelters (prior to Clinton nixing the Civil Defense program in ’96) are located in your area…know where strong basements and other areas to shelter in place are located.

Recommended Prep: Anti-Radiation Pills

Seem farfetched?  Rest assured, these steps are warranted.  Personally, I am not placing my fate or that of my family in the hands of politicians or attempting to court public favor or acceptance of what I have done…and my steps are all my own…not to be revealed to anyone.  You’ll have to weigh it in your own mind.  There’s plenty of literature out there.  We have mentioned Cresson Kearney’s Nuclear War Survival Skills plenty of times.  Another good resource is Bruce D. Clayton’s book “Life After Doomsday.”

The more you study and prepare, the better you’ll make the odds work for you…if you survive the initial attack.  In the end, the responsibility to act lies with you, and all the supplies, equipment, and even training in the world will not substitute for being able to make a timely decision and act upon it.  Should that fateful day arrive, the time to prepare for it is beforehand: don’t be left without a chair when the music stops.  Stay in that good fight.  JJ out!

This information has been made available by Ready Nutrition