Wow... I'm glad that some random guys on the Internet think that we should stop CBRNE CM training in order to teach "duck and cover" to first responders. You're right - teaching it does take about a minute.

Of course, that also means it doesn't compete with these exercises. These exercises are invaluable for all side and help develop tactics, techniques, and procedures for the real thing.

Why the spam/astroturfing?

There are only two areas in the country where first responders have radiation monitoring equipment appropriate for a nuclear detonation: rural Arizona, and Martha's Vineyard. They are equipped because of the volunteer efforts of Steve Jones and the equipment donated by Shane Connor (see above comments). Search YouTube on roadman911 to learn about this effort. Most of the American civil defense program, including millions of dollars of taxpayer-funded research and instrumentation, has been lost or destroyed. Thus, we are set up for millions of preventable casualties, and exercises like the one described in this article will be of little if any help. We need to start with basic life-saving information that anyone can grasp in a few minutes.

You can't maximize the saving of lives in a nuclear disaster without also first having pre-trained the public in how to avoid becoming a victim.

The public, and our children, urgently need to be instructed in Civil Defense basics again, like the 'good news' that thousands can save themselves by employing the old "Duck & Cover" tactic, rather than rushing to the nearest window to see what the big flash was just in time to be shredded by the glass imploding inwards from the delayed blast wave. Even in the open, just laying flat, reduces by eight-fold the chances of being hit by debris from that brief tornado strength blast. They need to also know, when promptly evacuating after the blast, that doing so perpendicular to the coming downwind drift of the fallout would be their best strategy. They must also be taught, if they can't evacuate in time, how to effectively shelter-in-place while the radioactive fallout loses 90% of it's lethal intensity in the first seven hours and 99% of it in two days. For those requiring sheltering from fallout, the majority would only need two or three days of full-time hunkering down, not weeks on end.

This 'good news' is easily grasped by most people, and an effective expedient family fallout shelter can be improvised at home quickly, but only IF the public had been trained beforehand, as was begun in the 50's & 60's with our national Civil Defense program.

The current national disaster response strategy tragically fails to grasp that the single greatest force multiplier to reducing potential casualties, and enhancing the effectiveness of first-responders, is a pre-trained public so that there will be far fewer casualties to later deal with.

Spending millions to upgrade and train first-responders is good and necessary, but having millions fewer victims, by having also educated and trained the public, would be many magnitudes more effective.

Re-launching Civil Defense is an issue we hope and pray will come to the forefront on the political stage, with both parties vying to outdo each other proposing national Civil Defense public educational programs. We are not asking billions for provisioned public fallout shelters for all, like what already awaits many of our politicians. We are just asking for a comprehensive mass media, business, and school based re-release of the proven practical strategies of Civil Defense instruction, a modernized version of what we used to have here, and that had been embraced by the Chinese, Russians, Swiss, and Israeli's.

There is no greater, nor more legitimate, primary responsibility of any government than to protect it's citizens. And, no greater condemnation awaits that government that fails to, risking millions then perishing needlessly. We all need to demand renewed public Civil Defense training and the media needs to spotlight it questioning officials and politicians, until the government corrects this easily avoidable, but fatal vulnerability.

Google "The Good News About Nuclear Destruction! 2009" for more details.

This inter-agency exercise is out of touch with reality and reflects the lost knowledge of what was once U.S. Civil Defense.

Four thousand people showed up for this exercise. The U.S. has about two million first responders who are expected to respond in a nuclear attack and they have not been trained. In fact they are worse-than untrained because Hollywood science fiction has filled the void where real civil defense knowlege should be.

Ironically there is so little our first responders need to know to be able to deal with nuclear attack effectively.

1. Duck and cover when there is a flash or bright light. Stay down for two minutes.

2. The 7-10 rule of nuclear fallout: Approximately seven hrs after a blast fallout loses 90% of its radioactivity. In 49 hours 99% and in two weeks 99.9%.

3. You cannot see radition from a nuclear blast but you can see what makes it, fallout. Fallout looks like sand, ash or grit. If you don't see any fallout there is likely no dangerous radiation. Fallout so fine that you can't see it takes weeks or months to come down and is largely harmless by that time. Place a white dinner plate, piece of paper or any smooth surface outside and check every 15 minutes for fallout particles. If you see fallout take shelter in a basement or behind thick walls for two or three days.

That basic information takes about one minute to communicate to a first responder. Yet ask any first responder what they know about nuclear and most, nearly all don't have a clue. They would panic or go to a window to see what the bright light was.

The money spent training elite teams or groups for nuclear attack preparations would be better spent giving ALL of our first responders the few basic facts they need to deal with this emergency.

Since nuclear civil defense was politically incorrect for so many years. The knowledgeable people have died or retired along with the programs.

Current nuclear attack preparedness training amounts to the blind leading the blind.

A few experts are useless. Two million first responders knowing just to duck and cover will do more good than exercises like this one.