A directed-energy weapon (DEW) emits energy in an aimed direction without the means of a projectile. A DEW transfers the energy to a target for the desired effect. Most DEWs…

Military medicine has often driven advancements in the provision of medical care in austere environments. Military medicine encompasses all aspects of health care required to keep the fighting force healthy…

Although the term quarantine is familiar to most physicians, nurses, and emergency medical services (EMS) personnel from their core training, it may mean many different things depending on where, to…

Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary , 10th edition, lists 1936 as the year of the earliest known use of the word decontaminate in English. Decontaminate is defined as follows: “to rid…

A dirty bomb is a device that combines radioactive materials with conventional explosives. Global terrorist organizations are believed to be interested in and capable of constructing dirty bombs and launching…

Description of the event The magnitude and severity of primary injuries from a blast explosion are determined by proximity, the quantity and type of explosive, and whether the explosion is…

The risk of chemical attack is no longer confined to the battlefield. The rise of asymmetric terrorist tactics, combined with the dual-use nature of technology and the proliferation of information,…

The events of September 11, 2001, and the worldwide proliferation of nuclear materials, including theft and smuggling, increase the possibility that a nuclear disaster may occur from the terrorist use…

Acknowledgment The authors would like to thank Dr. Jeffrey Kashuk for his contribution to the first edition. Description of event The continued perpetration of suicide bombings by terrorists throughout the…