U.S. Pentagon's Battle Plan Against a Zombie Apocalypse

Pentagon document lays out battle plan against zombies

By Jamie Crawford, CNN National Security Producer

updated 2:07 PM EDT, Fri May 16, 2014

Washington (CNN) -- Never fear the night of the living dead -- the Pentagon has got you covered.

From responses to natural disasters to a catastrophic attack on the homeland, the U.S. military has a plan of action ready to go if either incident occurs.

It has also devised an elaborate plan should a zombie apocalypse befall the country, according to a Defense Department document obtained by CNN.

In an unclassified document titled "CONOP 8888," officials from U.S. Strategic Command used the specter of a planet-wide attack by the walking dead as a training template for how to plan for real-life, large-scale operations, emergencies and catastrophes.

And the Pentagon says there's a reasonable explanation.

"The document is identified as a training tool used in an in-house training exercise where students learn about the basic concepts of military plans and order development through a fictional training scenario," Navy Capt. Pamela Kunze, a spokeswoman for U.S. Strategic Command, told CNN. "This document is not a U.S. Strategic Command plan."

Nevertheless, the preparation and thoroughness exhibited by the Pentagon for how to prepare for a scenario in which Americans are about to be overrun by flesh-eating invaders is quite impressive.

A wide variety of different zombies, each brandishing their own lethal threats, are possible to confront and should be planned for, according to the document.

Zombie life forms "created via some form of occult experimentation in what might otherwise be referred to as 'evil magic,' to vegetarian zombies that pose no threat to humans due to their exclusive consumption of vegetation, to zombie life forms created after an organism is infected with a high dose of radiation are among the invaders the document outlines."

Every phase of the operation from conducting general zombie awareness training, and recalling all military personnel to their duty stations, to deploying reconnaissance teams to ascertain the general safety of the environment to restoring civil authority after the zombie threat has been neutralized are discussed.

And the rules of engagement with the zombies are clearly spelled out within the document.

"The only assumed way to effectively cause causalities to the zombie ranks by tactical force is the concentration of all firepower to the head, specifically the brain," the plan reads. "The only way to ensure a zombie is 'dead' is to burn the zombie corpse."

There are even contingency plans for how to deal with hospitals and other medical facilities infiltrated by zombies, and the possible deployment of remote controlled robots to man critical infrastructure points such as power stations if the zombie threat becomes too much.

A chain of command from the President on down along with the roles to be played by the State Department and the intelligence community for dealing with the zombie apocalypse are clearly spelled out in the document.

The training document was first reported by Foreign Policy magazine.

This is also not the first time zombies have been used as the antagonist in U.S. government training operations. Both the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Homeland Security have used the creatures as a vehicle for training their personnel in the past.

Defense officials stress the report in no way signals an invasion of zombies is on the horizon. The only real purpose of the document was to practice how to execute a plan for handling something as large and serious a situation like flesh-eating beings trying to overrun the United States.

And why zombies?

Officials familiar with the planning of it say zombies were chosen precisely because of the outlandish nature of the attack premise.

"Training examples for plans must accommodate the political fallout that occurs if the general public mistakenly believes that a fictional training scenario is actually a real plan," the document says. "Rather than risk such an outcome by teaching our augmentees using the fictional 'Tunisia' or 'Nigeria' scenarios used at (Joint Combined Warfighting School), we elected to use a completely impossible scenario that could never be mistaken as a real plan."

So, practice for the when, where and how to plan for a more likely disaster scenario? Yes. But zombies of all stripes would be well advised to take note of this directive to Strategic Command personnel buried within the document.

"Maintain emergency plans to employ nuclear weapons within (the continental United States) to eradicate zombie hordes."

WINTER WEATHER CHECKLIST

Make sure that you take the necessary steps in preparing yourself for the cold weather outside.

Keep at least a 3-day emergency supply and a two-week supply if you live in a hard to reach area.  Include:

• Rock salt to melt ice on walkways.
• Snow shovels and snow removal items.
• Clothing and blankets to keep warm and avoid hypothermia and frostbite.
• Sand to improve traction.
• Sufficient heating fuel.
• Store a good supply of dry, seasoned wood for your fireplace or wood-burning stove.

Make a Family Communications Plan.  Know how to contact your family members in an emergency.

Be alert to changing weather conditions

• Listen to a NOAA Weather Radio or local news for critical National Weather Service (NWS) information.
• Learn about Wireless Emergency Alerts.

Weatherize your home

• Maintain heating equipment and chimneys by having them cleaned and inspected each year.
• Install a smoke detector and battery-operated carbon monoxide detector.  Remember to test and replace batteries.

Prepare Your Vehicle

• Minimize travel and plan ahead.  If you must drive, keep other informed of your schedule, stay on main roads and avoid back road shortcuts.
• Keep a near full gas tank to prevent the fuel line from freezing.
• Update the vehicle’s emergency kit with a shovel, windshield scraper, extra clothes and blankets, and emergency flare, and rock salt/sand.

 Courtesy of Emergency.cdc.gov

It's Hurricane Season Again, Are You Prepared?

Hurricane season has started and many thousands of people now prepared.  The Centers for Disease Control has provided a information page on the top items everyone should have in their disaster bug-out supplies.

http://emergency.cdc.gov/preparedness/kit/disasters/

Basic 72-Hour Kits / Bug Out Bags

So I keep hearing "I know I need to get a 72-hour kit, I just don't have the money to start."  This is a very poor excuse and will end up biting you in the rear when a disaster hits.  Look at NYC last month when Hurricane Sandy hit.  Disasters can strike at any time.

So I have put together a list of the most BASIC 72-Hour Kit / Bug Out Bag items.  This kit is probably the most important piece of survival supplies you could own.  I have prepared two list.  The first I consider the main essentials.  Most of the items can be located around the home.  So start collecting and put them together.  Remember to put a bag together for each member of the family.

Also, look through and update your kits every six months.. put i on your calendar so you don't forget.  Your main items to update would be medications, batteries, expired food of water, clothing.

BARE BONES BASIC 72-HOUR KIT / BUG OUT BAG - Backpack (you need a place to put all your goodies) - Bag Identifier (find something to distinguish the different bags, colors, bandannas) - Water (at least 4 liters per person) - Food (3 day supply per person.  You need foods that don't need to be refrigerated or cooked. Some examples: 3600 calorie meal bar, protein/granola bars, trail mix/dried fruit, crackers/cereals (for munching), canned tuna, beans, meat, Vienna sausages.  Try to stay away from pop-top lids, they can leak.  Jerky is good, but the flavor can also mix with everything else.  Unless you don't mind chewing jerky flavored gum.) - Baby Formula (if necessary) - 1 liter Water Container - Water purification tablets / Drops - Hard Candy/Gum (Jolly ranchers, mints, LifeSavers) - Change of Clothing (short  & long sleeve shirts, pants, socks, jackets, undergarments) - Rain Coat / Pancho - Flashlights (I like headlamps because its leaves my hands free) - Candles / Glow Stick (It's always good to have a second source of light so you don't waste your batteries.  Candles can also supply heat.) - Lighter / Water Proof Matches - Fire starting materials (magnesium stick, cotton balls, dryer lint, petroleum jelly) - Small Radio - Batteries for radio and flashlight - Pocket knife / survival knife - Multi-tool - Safety whistle - Duct Tape - Rope (550 cord is probably the best.  Its super light, and super strong) - First Aid Supplies - Sun block - Hand Sanitizes - Toiletries / Hygiene Products (tooth brush, paste, deorderant, soap, toilet paper, feminine products, brush, hair ties) - Medications (prescriptions, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, anti-diarrhea - Extra pair of glasses - Cash - Pen and Paper - Copies of important documents in water-proof container (ID's, insurance cards, birth certificates, marriage certificates, passports, immunizations, church records, list of phone numbers) - Garbage bag - Ziploc bags - Toys for small kids - Poker cards or other Card Games for teenagers and adults SOME MORE ITEMS TO ADD AFTER YOU GET THE BASICS - Camping Axe - Folding Shovel - Weapon (if you pack a firearm, make sure to pack extra ammunition) - Magnesium stick - Fried dried meals / MRE's - Canned Juice - Utensils - Cooking / Mesh Kits - Can Opener - Boy Scout cooking stove - Tarp / Mini Tube Tent - Fishing lures and line - Bug repellent - Maps - Iodine Tablets IN ADDITION TO YOUR 72-HOUR KITS / BUG OUT BAGS, KEEP THESE CLOSE BY - Sleeping Bags - Sleeping Bags - Pillow

Stone Age people may have battled against a zombie apocalypse

Discovery of skulls with their faces smashed in posthumously suggests Neolithic people believed the dead posed a threat to the living.

Written by Bryan Nelson, Mother Nature Network, August 20, 2012

The zombie apocalypse may be much more than a plot device exploited by modern horror movies. In fact, fears about the walking dead may go back all the way to the Stone Age.

Archaeologists working in Europe and the Middle East have recently unearthed evidence of a mysterious Stone Age "skull-smashing" culture, according to New Scientist. Human skulls buried underneath an ancient settlement in Syria were found detached from their bodies with their faces smashed in. Eerily, it appears that the skulls were exhumed and detached from their bodies several years after originally being buried. It was then that they were smashed in and reburied separate from their bodies.

According to Juan José Ibañez of the Spanish National Research Council in Barcelona, the finding could suggest that these Stone Age "skull-smashers" believed the living were under some kind of threat from the dead. Perhaps they believed that the only way of protecting themselves was to smash in the corpses' faces, detach their heads and rebury them apart from their bodies.

But here's the creepy thing: many of the 10,000-year-old skulls appear to have been separated from their spines long after their bodies had already begun to decompose. Why would this skull-smashing ritual be performed so long after individuals had died? Did they only pose a threat to the living long after their original burial and death?

If it was a ritualistic exercise, it also raises questions about why only select corpses were chosen. All of the smashed skulls were from adult males between the ages of 18 and 30. Furthermore, there was no trace of delicate cutting. It appears that the skulls' faces were simply smashed in using brute force with a stone tool.

Of course, there's almost certain to be a rational explanation for all of this. Then again, it's also fun to consider the possibility that these findings represent evidence for a Stone Age zombie uprising.

Let's consider a few key facets of zombie mythology. Zombies, as we know, are hungry for the flesh of the living, and the only way to stop them is with a head shot. In many zombie movies, this involves shooting them in the cranium. One might surmise that the Stone Age equivalent of this would be to instead smash in their faces with a big rock. Perhaps the lopping off of their heads was then performed to ensure that the job was done.

Perhaps the reason the original dead bodies seemed to be exhumed before their heads were properly smashed in was because the dead had risen from their own graves, under their own power.

Maybe, just maybe, Stone Age Syrians battled against and saved the world from an imminent zombie apocalypse some 10,000 years ago. The theory may not make great fodder for a scientific thesis, but it sets up the plotline for a B-grade horror movie to perfection.

Ibañez, not biting, operates with a cooler head. Being ever the sound researcher, he has proposed more tempered theories to explain the findings. For instance, it's possible that Stone Age people simply believed that they could absorb the strength of the dead young men by performing the ritual. This would help explain why all the skulls were from young men. It would also help to explain why the heads were buried directly underneath a thriving settlement. He also suggested the head-smashing could have been an act of revenge or spite.

Liv Nilsson Stutz at Emory University in Atlanta suggested the act could also have been a way of dealing with grief: "Taking away facial identity could be a way of separating the dead from the living," she said.

Seriously? Government warns citizens of 'zombie apocalypse' to urge better emergency plans

By Alicia A. Caldwell, The Associated Press, Sep 6, 2012

WASHINGTON - "The zombies are coming!" the Homeland Security Department says.

Tongue firmly in cheek, the government urged citizens Thursday to prepare for a zombie apocalypse, part of a public health campaign to encourage better preparation for genuine disasters and emergencies. The theory: If you're prepared for a zombie attack, the same preparations will help during a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake or terrorist attack.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency hosted an online seminar for its Citizen Corps organization to help emergency planners better prepare their communities for disaster. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year first launched a zombie apocalypse social media campaign for the same purposes.

Emergency planners were encouraged to use the threat of zombies — the flesh-hungry, walking dead — to encourage citizens to prepare for disasters. Organizers also noted the relative proximity to Halloween.

Among the government's recommendations were having an emergency evacuation plan and a change of clothes, plus keeping on hand fresh water, extra medications and emergency flashlights.

A few of the government's suggestions tracked closely with some of the 33 rules for dealing with zombies popularized in the 2009 movie "Zombieland," which included "always carry a change of underwear" and "when in doubt, know your way out."

How a Virus Creates Zombie Insects

Written by DNA Learning Center Blog

Photograph courtesy of the USDA Forest Service via Wikimedia Commons

Kelli Hoover and her research team from the Penn State have found out how a virus can change the behavior of a host organism. The result is destructive for the gypsy moth but excellent for the virus.

Gypsy moths are an invasive species. In its larval stage caterpillars damage roughly a million acres of forest in the U.S. each year by feeding on tree leaves. But the damage would be greater if it weren’t for a pathogen called baculovirus that infects these caterpillars and causes them effectively to engage in suicidal behavior.

Viruses can’t live on their own, so they infect other organisms to help them survive and reproduce. They therefore need to find ways to spread to new hosts to continue living.

Researchers have known for over 100 years that caterpillars can be infected by baculoviruses, especially species of monarch butterfly and gypsy moth. After infection the virus blocks molting, this is casting off a part of its body’s outer layer, and keeps the caterpillars in a constant devouring state. Normally male gypsy moth caterpillars molt five times during their lives, while females molt six times before they pupate, which means they are undergoing transformation, and subsequently emerge as moths. But infected caterpillars remain very hungry and constantly crave more food. By expanding the caterpillars’ feeding stage, the virus maximizes the amount of biomass (food and energy) available for viral replication.

Infected moths also change their climbing behavior to get more tree leaves. Gypsy moth caterpillars are active at night when they climb up trees to feed,  but during the day they hide in the soil or bark crevices to protect themselves from predators, such as birds and squirrels. Baculovirus-infected caterpillars climb to the treetops during the day to reach fresh food, then they remain there until they die because the virus uses most of the host tissue to reproduce. The virus is so successful in inducing this “tree top disease” that in the U.S. it has been sprayed on trees to help control gypsy moth outbreaks since the early 1970s.

The exact mechanism of this suicidal behavior has intrigued researchers for centuries until Kelly Hoover presented an elegant explanation in September 2011 in the journal Science. Her team found that the virus transforms caterpillars into hormonal slaves. The baculoviral gene egt encodes the enzyme EGT (UDP-glycosyltransferase) in the caterpillars, which inactivates the molting hormone, ecdysone (20E), once EGT levels become high enough. But when 20E is inactivated, the caterpillars remain in a constant feeding state in the treetops where the majority die, liquefy and rain down viral particles over the leaves for other hosts below. The new hosts ingest the viral particles and become infected, continuing the cycle.

The virus seems also to tell the caterpillars to travel to the top of the tree, a location that is optimal for its transmission to new hosts. Whereas the ‘tree top disease’ changes climbing behavior, older caterpillars infected with the virus are induced to die on the bark next to where other gypsy moth will come to pupate, meaning they have to pass over the dead and infectious cadavers, enabling the virus to easily pass to the next generation during egg larving. This is a wonderful example for host-virus co-evolution as the most important challenge for a virus is “outcompeting” other viruses and finding a stable reservoir for its own replication. So baculovirus is a clever virus that makes its host die in a place that effectively spreads itself to other hosts, providing a big advantage.

With this study, Hoover and her coworkers were one of the first to identify a single gene of a parasite responsible for manipulating the behavior of the host animal. This concept is known innature but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Many parasites control their hosts’ habits, including toxoplasmosis and rabies in mammals. The parasitic disease toxoplasmosis mostly infects cats, but if a mouse becomes infected with toxoplasmosis, they lose their innate fear of cats and become easier to catch for dinner. This benefits the infecting protozoa because it is more easily transmitted to its preferred host. Similarly, the rabies virus causes normally nocturnal or shy animals to appear during the day and to become far more aggressive than normal.

Since scientists now know precisely how baculovirus functions in gypsy moth, we can create modified virus-strains to act as weapons against outbreaks. The great advantage is that this virus is specific for gypsy moth larvae but is harmless to all other animals, insects and plants in the treatment zone. This is therefore a far better treatment than alternative pest control methods like spraying pesticides and deadly fungi.