Nov 20 (Fri) – Day 16 – 1630

So much worse than I expected. My eyes were on fire, my nose was dripping snot a foot down and an inch think my throat was burning and I couldn’t breathe. The more I coughed, the less I could breathe. The 15 seconds without my gas mask seemed like 10 minutes, then when I got outside, it took another 15 minutes until I could bear it, overall, that was probably the worst experience of my life.

ACTUAL ACCOUNT

We put our masks on before we went in, and were all checked by a cadre member. When it was our turn to go in, we went in two lines and lined up against opposite walls then they closed the doors. At first I thought it wasn’t that bad. In the center of the room, there was a small table with two big coffee cans and a small fan. One of the DS’s started stirring up one of the cans and some smoke began to fill the room. The DS filed down the line and made us lift our masks one by one and say our name, rank, and social security number. When it was my turn, I got half of it out then choked through the rest of it. By the time I went to put my mask back on, the room was filling with more and more of this weird smoke, and somehow I didn’t seal it right, so I was choking and my eyes were burning for several minutes while I adjusted it and cleared it. Finally I got it working. Then the DS’s swirled around those cans again, and soon the room was covered in a fog. They counted 10 people off and lined them up at the door. They then had them take off their masks completely and sing the national anthem. This is about what it sounded like: Oh say can, COUGH COUGH COUGH HACK HACK CHOKE PUKE COUGH COUGH… you get the picture. This went on for 15 slow, slow seconds, and then they were let out. Next it was my turn. Once I took my mask off, I immediately started choking, I just sat there hoping - no praying for the suffering to end, then finally, the doors opened! We went out, and I thought I would never recover, I could barely open my eyes, and I still couldn’t breathe. Snot was hanging way down off my face. About 10 minutes later, I could finally breathe normally again, and the pain had mostly faded. About 8 hours later though, I’m still coughing, and I think that crap is still in my lungs…