GAS! GAS!! GAS!!!

No, I am not talking about Mom after burrito night either. I got to test out CS, or tear gas, at ASBC today. Before stepping into the wonderful concrete building that was the gas house, we underwent an indepth briefing on MOPP (mission oriented protective posture) gear and our gas masks.

After the briefings, several drills (note the title), trying on MOPP lvl 4 gear (the BDU pants, jacket, hood) we got to eat a "yummy" MRE (meal ready to eat). I lucked out and got the vegitarian MRE (no offense to these confused people who don't eat meat...but the veggie MREs are terrible).

After some more briefings (they never seem to end) we made our way onto some busses to go to the gas house. It was on the other side of the base so we drove around the runways and such, performed a last minute pressure test, and got down to business.

My flight (12 people total) all went in at once. We then did some light work out and finally got into two parallel lines and removed our masks. We then quickly got as far away from the CS gas as possible. Hard to describe what it was like. My face was very irritable, my eyes were watering, tons of snot flowing from my nose, and my saliva tasted to bad it was triggering my gag reflex.

Our next procedure was to proceed up wind and shake out our arms. The wind would blow off the CS gas that was sticking to our skin. Several dry heaves, gallons of gew, and spits later it started to clear up. What was amazing was that after ten minutes I was pretty much good (and my sinuses were clear).

This is my flight about 10 minutes after the CS house.

First picture is me in MOPP lvl 4. Second picture I am on the right with some flight members in MOPP lvl 4.