Tear gas anyone?

[underpants]

I've been tear gassed twice

Once in civilian life and once in the Army (a standard of basic training). It's horrible. The feeling of your skin peeling off and your eyes bleeding is just part of it. The feeling that you aren't breathing immediately leads to panic. I've never been near drowning but it has to be close to that BUT you know you are are standing in open air which makes it worse.

The first time was at a party in college. Some ROTC guy got kicked out of a raging party across the landing from the pre-party I was at. We opened the door and WHAM. The tear gas grenade was going off between the two parties. Third floor - nice throw to be honest. Suddenly the ten of us were dunking our heads into the tub, sink, and yes the toilet. Anything to make it stop. Usually 5 girls and 5 guys in a bathroom is much more fun.

In the Army this is a thing you hear about from the first week. Don't drink milk don't do this don't do this - later on the drill Sargents admitted they were bullshitting us the whole time. The actual day was at the end of a week of NBC (Nuclear Biological Chemical) training and we all knew it was coming. We walked into a 20x20 cinderblock building in our masks. Walked around to get our breathing going while caplets were popped into an old coffee can...as we watched. Then we were told to unmask. I described the effects above. I was the 6th of 16 to say may name rank and social security number. I have no idea how number 8 let alone 15&16 made it. I felt like I was dying.

They one thing they didn't bullshit us about was that Sgt. ----- was going to hold the door closed. I got out of the main room, planted my right foot and hit the out door like a dump truck. When I walked out all I saw was the drill Sargents laughing and AIR!!! Turns out I moved the guy holding the door back 5 feet. This was a big dude too. Did some semi-pro wrestling.

The last part of the story was a few years later. We were going to "test our masks". This was during the first gulf war period. We ended up in the darkest room I've ever been in. I couldn't see my own hand in front of me. Before that though, as we were walking towards the building, we caught a whiff of it. We could see the building. GAS GAS GAS was yelled aaaaand a fellow soldier screamed like a little girl and ran into the woods. We're talking about 100+ highly trained and conditioned US Army Cav Scouts. I watched as everyone started following. I was laughing as I followed too knowing the wrath we were going to face. When we finally came out of the woods our head Scout ripped into us in a profanity rant worthy of record. At one point he looked directly at me and said "______ if you laugh I swear I will rip rank off you". Somehow I kept it together.

We knew how bad it was from experience. One guy, in mask - we didn't unmask - had a panic atttack inside the dark building. Right in the middle too so we were trying to figure out how to get him out WHICH WAY?!?! Totally unable to see each other and talking from inside gas masks.