What would you do if an IED were to go off in your neighborhood?

[Tony Soprano]

What would you do if an IED were to go off in your neighborhood?

My Army Reserve unit has added some new training to our monthly drill weekends. I serve in a medical/hospital unit and along with our section level training, my unit has now begun to incorporate more infantry training which is designed to help us devise different strategies for countering the weapons and the homemade explosive devices that have wreaked havoc in Iraq, known as IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices, in a domestic environment. I suppose that this sort of thing now seriously poses a rising threat to the United States.

According to some media leaks in my area, they have reveled that IEDs going off in your neighborhood are increasingly becoming a credible threat from known sleeper cells, but state and local officials still have no blueprint for countering the threat of improvised explosives. According to the media in my area, the first responders & police in my area are still insufficiently coordinated and lack essential resources, manpower and are improperly equipped.

In your neighborhood, do you know who the various federal agencies are, and if they have in place protocols for this sort of thing? How is your local bomb squad equipped? The explosives-sniffing dogs? Are they all at the airport? Are their any available in your community? What kind of funding does your local bomb squad get a year? What kind of explosive detection devices do your local police have?

My OCD makes me paranoid at times, but I suppose that a domestic IED threat across a wide spectrum in small town America and in our huge metro areas must be a credible major threat, or I wouldn’t be training in these scenarios now.

This is info from some of my unit’s Soldiers returning from Iraq on some “domestic” IEDs they have confiscated throughout Iraq that doesn’t make CNN:

-Blocks of TNT with a remote-controlled detonator, daisy-chained and concealed in garbage cans

-Abandoned cars filled with fertilizer and fuses

-a suicide runner that was taken out with one of our M240 machine guns was found to be carrying a peroxide-ammonia based explosive.

It’s just safe for everyone to find out if your community has some sort of coordination of IED prevention in place from your local and state law enforcement and domestic protection agencies, such as the ATF, your local bomb squad, etc.

Compare the capabilities of all your local and state bomb squads and first responders. Find out if they are trained on terrorist IEDs. Get to know your law enforcement and the soldiers that live in your communities. I guess soon we will prepare for IEDs like we now prepare for hurricanes.

Man, am I paranoid tonight or what! I need a vacation!

Anyway, I love what I do in the Army and I love serving all of you, God's people

Cheers, everyone!

[George Aar]

Um, we've already HAD an IED go off in a neighborhood - Oklahoma City.

That being said, it wouldn't surprise me if we start getting what the rest of the world's been living with for decades now.

It would have been nice if our government had allocated the needed resources to beef up our intelligence gathering and infiltrating of terrorist orgs. instead of starting unnecessary wars, but, we DID elect the guys (well, sort of)...

[Ham]

What would you do if an IED were to go off in your neighborhood?

probably depend on how close I was to it when it went off..

Actually, there are so many protocols that response would probably be a nightmare..

The whole scene is labeled as a biohazard..

[Radar OReilly]

move to Nova Scotia.

:blink:

Radar

[Ham]

I dunno. Maybe it's not so bad. If I was close enough to one of those things, I'd get to go to all the places I wanted to, all at the same time. A little part of me could go to the vacation spot in WV.. maybe Washington state.. I'd like a little piece buried at the radio club's field day site..

sowy..

I know it's serious business, but it's not THAT serious.. what are you gonna do if it happens anyway?

[pond]

your paranoid?

Im in NY not to far from where the plane crashed in Penn.

how many people look up to the sky when an airplane goes by?

we do to see if it will land on our house or fly into the building or our head.

that is a " paranoid" that does not go away from 911.

do not even start with what do ya think when the helicopers come by doing rounds.

go see the big apple for the vacation you will see some concern, it doesnt go away.

we are not prepared for the murdering sobs, but we are better than we were , no mercy.

[Ham]

I dunno.. the other day, I saw a pretty scabby looking truck slowly approaching one of our government buildings here. I didn't exactly "freak" or anything.. but I did check it out..

it stopped at the church a block away, and unloaded..

but ya know.. if it happened to be somebody who "meant business".. I wouldn't be here to be sharing the little story..

unless somebody here could "channel" the spirit of the Squirrel..

Edited November 9, 2007 by Mr. Hammeroni

[waysider]

The inner city is already a war zone.

If you die because of an IED or because you were caught in the crossfire of a drive-by, you are still dead.

Live life as fully as you can and let destiny take its course.

[Ham]

:)

sheesh.. you're gonna live forever anyway..

I just hope I take at least a little bit of "me" with "me" when I go..

[mstar1]

Strange Post T

'Cheers" to you too

I dont think about, I dont worry about it, when its my time, its my time.

If something goes off, if Im not maimed or dead, i suppose I'd do what I could for the survivors until the pro's arrived and shooed me away.

Something will happen someday, but I dont see the advantage of consciously carrying it around with me all the time.

I would be very surprised if anything happened near me so its not a concern on a daily level --ever. If I am in some run down inner city, or some spot that is more likely ( like a tunnel or a powerplant or a national monument or something) my natural defenses raise a little

higher, but I cant function when fear and paranoia run wild.

maybe it is vacation time...

[Sushi]

Tony, I would have thought you would have someone find the perpetrator and show him/her that it was unacceptable behavior.

[Mister P-Mosh]

I think it is paranoiac and self-destructive to worry about such things. I have family in Belfast, one of whom has had an IED blow up and put him in a wheelchair. My family members there don't worry about being blown up, despite the fact that people do get blown up over there a lot more than Americans do here.

You should not worry, or be "vigilant" as the self-deluded like to call it. Live your life as if you could die at any moment, because you really could die. A blood clot could take you out at any moment, getting into your car to drive is infinitely more dangerous than terrorists with IEDs. There are simply better things to be concerned about.

Oh, and for the record, IEDs are set off in the U.S. occasionally by Christian extremists like those that want to kill doctors that perform abortions. It's nothing new here either, but I don't worry about it in any case. I have to live my life instead of being afraid.

[Tony Soprano]

Tony, I would have thought you would have someone find the perpetrator and show him/her that it was unacceptable behavior.

Yeah...a nice pair of cement shoes would take care of the perpetrator!, huh!...

My OCD is much better today I took my meds! I'm no longer paranoid!

I must have just been having a moment when I posted the other day

I don't go around worrying about it everyday, it's just that being in the military - it's been programmed into my brain - 'situational awarness' 'situational awareness'...over and over and over... it has been beat into me so much that sometimes I just walk around in the city looking over my shoulder just by habit. not even really thinking about it. There's no feeling to it either. I just catch myself doing it. I don't go around ducking at loud noises or staring at rooftops looking for a sniper. It's just hard to seperate the training sometimes, and it's not something you want to unlearn or get lazy with, in case you do get sent to the sandbox. I need to keep that discipline. Your life litterally depends on it in that environment.

[Jim]

I fly an airplane, drive a car and occasionally saddle up the motorcycle. I have big metalworking machines in the garage that will happily turn a hand into hamburger. I have a torch and welder that will inflict 3rd degree burns quicker than you can blink. A transcontinental railroad and Interstate 80 are about 1000 feet from the back of my house, with chlorine, acids, LPG and all manners of toxics gliding by day and night. I also live in earthquake country and tornados are not unknown.

These are real things to think about, not the one in one bazzilian chance of someone setting off a bomb near me. And I still sleep pretty good for an old man.

[Ham]

Well.. if the odds are not much unlike that of winning the lotto..

maybe people ought not to pray to win the lotto. They very well may win the wrong one..

[herbiejuan]

Tony first off I wouldn't panic, I'd take a good look at what was going on in my neighborhood and then decide what to do, from there on depending on circumstances things may change significantly or not.

[Bramble]

I live in a small town, the countryside isn't far away. But I remember feeling paranoid when I lived in a big city. Getting anywhere took time due to traffic, lines at the grocery store were always long--nothing happened fast.

I remember discussing what we would do if a Red Dawn( the invasion movie)situation happened. Heck, we wouldn't even be able to get out of town for hours!

That was the first thing I thought about after Craigs Y2K video--If the world as we know it is going to end, then we need to be in the NW with my hunting, fishing, wood chopping family! Not smack in the middle of a big city where people own lots of guns for protection, not hunting.

[rhino]

We just had drive thru flu shots made availabe ... I'm told it was part training for a possible bio attack.

It went so slowly that I think we need a lot more work ...

How many have been killed by radical islam, and how many by psycho christians? I'm guessing 100 to 1 in favor of the radical islam .. especially if you count them killing each other on a daily basis ... there are some sane people that recognize we should think about the possible extension of the aggression of radical islam ... real preparations are pretty slow ...

[ex70sHouston]

I don't believe in living scared. But one big thing stays in the back of my mind.

Pakistan's government may fall within the next few years. They have nukes. The people who would take over are the Taliban. At that point I would not live or visit New York or Washington DC. We will be talking a Jericho.

Me I'm not worried. I live in a town of 20,425. We are 70 miles from a major city. The highway patrol has a plan that cuts the interstate off 35 miles east of us. That keeps the craziness isolated away from here.

[Mister P-Mosh]

I don't believe in living scared. But one big thing stays in the back of my mind.

Pakistan's government may fall within the next few years. They have nukes. The people who would take over are the Taliban. At that point I would not live or visit New York or Washington DC. We will be talking a Jericho.

Me I'm not worried. I live in a town of 20,425. We are 70 miles from a major city. The highway patrol has a plan that cuts the interstate off 35 miles east of us. That keeps the craziness isolated away from here.

Actually, if Pakistan does fall, I predict Bush would declare Iraq a success and move our military over to Pakistan and bring al Qaeda back up again. Additionally, we would actually be able to get a real coalition to go in there, and the Indian military could probably take most of the brunt of it on the ground. Nobody wants renegade nukes out there.

The only good thing is that Pakistan is incapable of producing missiles that can reach the U.S. If anything, terrorists would attempt a dirty bomb, and that is far less devestating than a real nuke attack.

Still, you have to keep all of this in perspective. You're more likely to die in a car accident today or by having a heart attack than you are by an act of terrorism. You're more likely to die by being struck by lightning than you are by terrorism. It does no good to worry about any of that stuff, although we should make sure our government does it's job in securing our nation against groups like al Qaeda.

[Jim]

Keep in mind that this scenario already played out in South Africa.

It was fairly common knowledge that Apartheid South Africa had the components for at least 6 weapons. All of which were dismantled and probably sold to Israell before the ANC took power. All traces of South Africa's weapons program were dismantled and shipped out or destroyed.

Mind you, Pakistan won't sell their weapons to Israel, but they probably would sell them to the US. BTW, something like 40 percent of our power reactor fuel is made up from plutonium from former Soviet warheads that we've purchased from Russia. So there's something of a precedent for the US buying up 'surplus' weapons-grade plutonium.