Why there is no Army left; How Zombies defeated the US-Army

[def_c�n]

greetings from germany.
i know the following text is not from the walking dead, but i think its very interesting and fun to read and its an explanation what happened in the maintime and why there is no army left .

enjoy as i did.

PRELUDE
(...)
on of the first heavy outbrakes was in new york city. to prevent the usa to be overrun by zombies, they tried to stop the zombies from getting out of new york. so they build their defences in yonkers, a suburb of new york.
(...)

THE BATTLE

Several elements of the United States Armed Forces were deployed along the Saw Mill River Parkway in North Yonkers. While the parkway served as a natural choke point (the only intelligent tactic that military leadership employed, as described by a surviving veteran), it made no difference in the final result. Utilizing antiquated tactics dating back to the Cold War, positions were prepared in such ways as digging tank emplacements, building barriers out of sandbags, and in foxholes. The zombie hordes from the city were lured into the choke point by the handful of refugees still fleeing towards the army's position, and due to the chain swarm effect, gradually the entire New York City infestation, numbering in the millions, was headed towards Yonkers.

When zombies first began to trickle down the freeway, the opening salvos were fired - two MLRS rocket barrages which destroyed a significant percentage of the first wave but ultimately made few kills zombies with limbs and torsos blown off could still advance so long as they had an intact brain and some means to drag themselves forward. As the undead became more tightly packed, the MLRS lost effectiveness, with the thick swarms of zombies reducing the possibility of a head wound significantly. The second barrage came from M109 Paladin artillery stationed on a hill to the rear of the infantry. They fired fragmentation shells which had even less of an effect than the MLRS barrages. The artillery strikes depended on the "balloon effect," which by proximity to an explosion would cause the liquid in the victim's body to burst. This did not occur, however, because of the zombie's coagulated blood. Therefore, SNT (Sudden Nerve Trauma), which "just shuts down vital organs like God flickin' a light switch," did not happen either.[1]

After this, the infantry, armor and air support opened fire on the "river of undead humans". Firing on the zombies were the full military might of the United States Army: M1 Abrams tanks, M2 Bradleys, Humvees, mortars and several RAH-66 Comanche helicopters. All of these held sustained fire for a time in what was likened to "a meatgrinder, or a wood chipper..."[2] until the anti-personnel ammunition ran out. In fact, little of it had even been provided for the tanks. The armor and helicopters then switched over to Anti-Tank rounds like HEAT or Sabot shells which had little to no effect on the swelling tide of undead.

The infantry were left fighting the undead in close proximity, and there were even zombies locked in the houses behind the front line of infantry that had been freed by the explosions, ambushing and devouring unsuspecting troops. Other soldiers could see everything, through the weapon mounted cameras of the front-line soldiers (thanks to the Land Warrior system); the hordes closing in, their fellow soldiers falling and being eaten alive and even reports of zombies not dying when being shot in the head (this happened because the rounds grazed their heads, something panicking soldiers failed to notice). F-35 fighter jets launched AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon, dropping hundreds of thousands of explosive devices.

The bombing run decimated the oncoming wave and resulted in a few moments of eerie silence as the dazed and confused soldiers recovered from the shock of the nearby explosions. However, even more zombies shuffled up the road to take their place. At that point the battle turned into utter chaos, as the soldiers on the ground saw an oncoming wave of millions more zombies emerging from the smoke clouds from the bombs that had taken out the first several thousand. Satellite images from the Land Warrior system still showed a horde of millions of zombies stretching back into Times Square on Manhattan island. In a notable act of desperation one helicopter gunship bravely tried to buy time for infantry on the ground to retreat by flying low towards the zombie horde with its rotary blades tipped forward; this sliced through many zombies and slowed their advance, but then one of the helicopter's blades hit a wrecked car, causing it to crash and explode.

News crews clambered over one another to get away from the coming onslaught and military personnel sought refuge anywhere they could from the zombies. There was crazy, random shooting from soldiers and armed newsmen in a blind panic. The Air Force dropped several thermobaric weapons on the zombies and their own troops hoping to neutralize the undead at Yonkers in one sweep (which had the gruesome side-effect of ripping lungs out of individuals not destroyed by the initial blast, leaving numerous ghouls wandering around with their lungs hanging out of their mouths). It accomplished its purpose of destroying the majority of zombies from that battle but many more still poured in from Manhattan, overpowering the American forces and proving, to devastating effect, and on national television no less, that the war with the undead could not be won with conventional tactics. Within 3 weeks after Yonkers, the eastern United States was abandoned by the United States military in a mass retreat to a new defensive line at the Rocky Mountains.
What went wrongEdit

The Battle of Yonkers was an unmitigated disaster for the military. Public confidence in them and the United States Government was shattered, and this contributed heavily to the Great Panic and claimed the lives of many more Americans.

Tactics Edit

The tactics used by the army dated back to plans against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. After years of fighting brushfire wars, the "Fulda Fucktards" (sic) who had come of age during the Cold War were overjoyed to have an opportunity to fight a conventional battle and completely ignored the new, untested nature of the undead enemy. Instead of placing infantry in positions of overwatch and in elevated areas with excellent lines of fire, the soldiers were forced to fight on the ground and were quickly overrun. The higher-ups failed to prepare for what was essentially a human wave attack, and should have had fewer men on the ground and more indirect fire units. The soldiers were also outfitted with "Land Warrior" gear which, amongst other things, provided each soldier with a radar readout of the surrounding area for miles around. This included the hordes of zombies that started coming soon after the battle began. Seeing the thousands of zombies, many soldiers lost their composure and would use the Land Warrior communication up link (this allowed each soldier to share communications) to share frantic shouts and hurried claims once they started being overrun, which in turn significantly decreased morale. The soldiers used foxholes, of all things, as part of what the commanders said was a "concealment" technique (designed only for enemies that fired weapons, not for ones that sniffed you out), but popular consensus is that all the fancy equipment, foxholes and everything else was to put on to show the American people the high-tech prowess of the US military over the zombies.
Another problem was that the military instruction that these soldiers had been undergoing for years had trained them to shoot at a target's center of mass (torso, because it is the most difficult to miss), and although the soldiers at Yonkers had been informed that the only way to kill a zombie was with a head shot, they had little experience with doing so and could not easily switch to aiming at a new smaller target.

Equipment

The soldiers were ordered to wear protective MOPP (MOPP Level 4) gear, (used in case of chemical or biological warfare) which greatly impairs one's ability to fight by restricting eyesight, range of motion and respiration. The MOPP4 gear was unnecessary and done as part of the gigantic propaganda tool that Yonkers was supposed to be; re-instilling morale and confidence in the government's control of the situation by showcasing all of the military's newest and most high-tech technologies (i.e. deploying several technological cutting-edge anti-vehicle tanks and weapons, even though these would be next to useless against zombies). Bulky MOPP4 gear made it incredibly difficult simply to reload infantry rifles, and ammunition was also in short supply as they had not accurately gauged how much shooting would be required (few of the standard infantry were expected to even actually shoot, just during mopping-up work after the artillery barrage finished off most of the zombies, but instead they all found themselves fighting for their lives).

In addition, the soldiers had been made to spend an entire hot August day (one of the warmest on record, due to all of the smoke from fires caused by the chaos of the zombie epidemic) digging fox holes and entrenchments while wearing the MOPP4 gear, pushing them near to exhaustion. The entrenchments and foxholes were meant to provide "Cover and Concealment", when the whole point was to draw the enemy toward the firing line (negating the need for Concealment), and an enemy that didn't even use weapons (negating the need for cover). The most convincing point about the MOPP4 gear being unnecessary and "for show" is that military officers and civilian reporters walking around along the defensive line were in no way required to wear protective gear of any kind, and had the military seriously thought the zombie virus might be airborne (which it is not) they would have required command officers and news crews to wear them as well.

A good deal of the equipment was there for no other reason than to just "look pretty". The Land Warrior system, as of this writing in 2011, is still in an experimental stage and has yet to be consistently used by deployed troops. There were radar and comm jamming equipment (zombies do not use radar or any form of communication other than guttural moans and screams); a pontoon-bridge layer system "perfect for the 3-in. deep creek running along the parkway"; a tank line when zombies do not use tanks; foxholes and tank fortifications were built to repel a shooting army when zombie hordes use no firearms whatsoever; even a whole F.O.L. (Family of Latrines) module was placed right in the center of the forward command center despite the fact that all the plumbing in all the surrounding buildings and houses was still running. All this useless equipment just wound up clogging traffic, making it more difficult to move around. Machine guns were available on most vehicles, but proved ineffective. Zombies fired upon by machine guns simply broke in half and crawled at ankle-level, making them slower but more dangerous as they became a much lower target to hit.

The Land Warrior system, which effectively connected each soldier to every other by use of video cameras, proved perhaps the most fatal mistake: morale disintegrated soon after soldiers watched their brothers-in-arms panicking, retreating, and being eaten alive, all on a monitor built into their helmets. It also showed soldiers live satellite camera feeds showing the entire miles-long horde of several million zombies pouring out of New York City towards them, making it difficult to focus on fighting the ones immediately facing them when faced with the full magnitude of the zombie horde.

The conventional anti-tank ordnance was also useless against an army of zombies, as many of the depleted uranium rounds had no effect but to fly straight through the undead and pass harmlessly to the rear of the advancing mass. Once all anti-personnel rounds were fired from the tanks, the tank crews switched to anti-tank rounds; Wainio noted how demoralizing it is to witness a tank fire its' main cannon into a zombie crowd with little effect. The men in charge of the battle failed to properly equip their forces for anti-infantry operations; from the outset, anti-tank weaponry should have been discarded, and AFVs loaded with HEI-T (High Explosive Incendiary, Tracer) rounds. The old guard of the US military command had relied too much on their own technological superiority, not adapting to the zombie threat. There were also noted to be HMMWV's with anti-air systems, which would be even less effective on the undead than anti-tank ordnance.

One of the greatest ironies of the battle is that even if the military commanders had thought that M1 Abrams tanks firing anti-vehicle weapons were useful against the infantry-based undead, they simply did not supply enough ammunition for them to shoot. Even if the anti-tank rounds the forces at Yonkers were supplied with were effective against zombies, they quickly ran out. The counter-argument for this is that due to the poor state of the US economy it was difficult to produce that much ammunition. Nonetheless, the US military command grossly underestimated how much ammunition they needed, and it was short-sighted to put soldiers into harms way with "the army you have" rather than waiting to be fully supplied. Even if the military commanders sent soldiers into the battle without enough ammunition, recognizing that they were under-supplied but simply had no choice because the zombies were taking over, in no way should they have walked into the battle hyping it to the media as a "decisive victory" that would wipe out the zombies.

Essentially, rather than giving good sniping positions, they gave them tanks, helicopters, machine guns, and restrictive suits, none of which had any real effect on the horde. If the military had placed a group of any size on a rooftop with a properly sighted M16, or other similar weapon and the ammunition to supply them, the battle would have been drastically more successful.


source: http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Yonkers

[Rommel49]

Ugh, I remember that. It's actually a good example of why you shouldn't try to explain what happens to the military in this kind of scenario and just leave it to the imagination of the reader, it's better for suspension of disbelief. In this case, there's a lot of authorial fiat (and badly written authorial fiat at that) in addition to the lack of proper research, etc. Just what I can put down real quick:

First, I have no where he's getting this "SNT" nonsense from. Just as bad is the author's ridiculous notion that heavy artillery is somehow less effective against densely packed zombies, since the more densely packed they are means each individual shell is effecting more targets. Artillery, whether rocket or tube primarily kills people in one of two ways:

1.) Over/Underpressure, where an explosion creates a shockwave in the atmosphere, it tends to have a greater effect on gas or fluid-filled parts of the body (which is what I assume the author's getting this "balloon effect" stuff from), but make no mistake, over/underpressure can just as easily tear limbs and heads right off of torsos. Even more notable? It'll turn the brain to mush without even having to break through the skull simply by entering through the various holes in the face (mouth, nose, ears, etc.). If absurdity like helicopter blenders work, so will over/underpressure effects.

2.) Shrapnel, i.e. those sharp, twisted pieces of metal that rip, tear, slice and dice through flesh and bone. Yes, they will go through an unprotected head just fine.

The 155mm M795 HE Shell (the sort of round the Paladin fires) has a lethal radius of 50 meters from what I recall, with a potential to kill at twice that. Even cutting that in half to kill/cripple zombies, you're looking at hundreds dead per shell since they're densely packed on a highway, oh, and that round can be fired accurately at a range of about 30km. Each sub-munition in an MLRS warhead sends out shrapnel with a lethal radius of 8 meters, not the warhead itself, just an individual sub-munition. The number of sub-munitions in a single warhead? Over 600. They easily go through flesh, bone, etc. at that rate, you almost don't need to pick up body parts afterwards, you go fetch a mop.

In short, the author woefully underestimates the power of heavy artillery, and doesn't even seem to grasp how it functions. This trend continues.

Something like the 120mm Sabot would be one of more effective rounds against a dense pack of squishies, zombies or no. The round's going to go through an arbitrary number of them, and the round is large enough to create a huge wound channel (i.e. lots of physical damage) regardless of where it hits, and god forbid it yaws and starts tumbling.

This is also ignoring the obvious, a tank's a 70 ton block of armor on tracks, there's nothing the zombies can do to it. Hell, it doesn't even need to fire to kill zombies, just hit the gas. Sure, maintenance and cleaning would suck afterwards.

Also, Land Warrior does not work that way. Land Warrior was primarily a one-way system. The idea being to give each level of command (e.g. company, battalion, regiment) access to my information, and at each successive layer patch it together with the information from other guys where it'd gradually become more comprehensive until it reached the guys at the top and they could see a very detailed (albeit incredibly abstract) view of what was going on in the area. Information sharing systems like Land Warrior don't let grunts spam everyone with stuff, look at everybody else's camera feeds, etc (for obvious reasons).

It's also somewhat ironic that the tactics are pegged for being Cold-War era, but the author apparently doesn't understand those either . It's supposed to be a Fulda static defense deal... and there's no actual fortifications, not even minefields (yeah, anti-personnel mines might not kill zombies outright, but it'd slow them down). Likewise, he missed the other parts of that doctrine, combat engineers didn't create an open free fire zone by destroying the buildings at the front of the defensive line and allow for decent enfilade firing positions. Nor were refugees diverted along alternate routes away from where the free-fire zone should've been. The zombies also weren't funneled into crossfire zones.

Ironically enough, the suggestion given to move to the rooftops would've been one of the worst things to do, since those positions would've been isolated and would've required air dropped resupply.

[Milosuperspesh]

sorry but i appreciate the effort but that too much text to read for some people...

[The_Cheshire_Cat]

Whoa; that is a lot of text. I will read it all.

But how about this for a really short version of what happened to the US army:

It was deployed all over the world and as a result did not have the numbers needed to adequately respond to the situation "at home" As a result it had to rely heavily on its reserve forces who were living at home as part of the population and suffered greatly once the outbreak occurred.

As a result the military response was nearly non existent

[Lars80]

I can assure you those artillery shells will wreck havoc among zombies packed together.
Even if they are not killed, limbs will be flying all over the place. And a zombie with no arms or leggs will not be much of a threat to anyone but a turtle.

Sure, if there was literally millions of zombies coming out of new york i can see how it would be a problem with ammunition.
But long before everyone ran out there would be a tactical withdrawal covered by tanks and those 50 cal machineguns mounted on just about every military vehicle today.

[Cattivo]

You would think that napalm would be very effective against large groups of zombies packed together...

[Lars80]

Originally Posted by Cattivo

You would think that napalm would be very effective against large groups of zombies packed together...

But that would piss off the UN.
After all, the UN would be looking at other options, such as negotiating with the zombies.

[ruairi46]

Originally Posted by Lars80

But that would piss off the UN.
After all, the UN would be looking at other options, such as negotiating with the zombies.

Need a negotiater. I'm imagining some hostage situation with a zombie eating some guys brain.

[Lars80]

Originally Posted by ruairi46

Need a negotiater. I'm imagining some hostage situation with a zombie eating some guys brain.

Im guessing the UN is why the situation got out of hand.
While UN was busy talking, and listening to small pisspoor nations who really shouldnt have a say, because they dont matter. The infection spread and the military that was not permitted to fire, because of the UN.... was overrun.

[Rommel49]

Originally Posted by Lars80

Im guessing the UN is why the situation got out of hand.
While UN was busy talking, and listening to small pisspoor nations who really shouldnt have a say, because they dont matter. The infection spread and the military that was not permitted to fire, because of the UN.... was overrun.

Pfff, we never much listened to the U.N. beforehand, I don't see much reason to assume that would change, especially with regard to ROE. About the most they could do about it is write a sternly worded letter.

[strela]

Originally Posted by Lars80

Im guessing the UN is why the situation got out of hand.
While UN was busy talking, and listening to small pisspoor nations who really shouldnt have a say, because they dont matter. The infection spread and the military that was not permitted to fire, because of the UN.... was overrun.

lol this is so typical..

[Master of Aeons]

Boy am I glad none of you are in the UN. Nor are you in the first response team who take action in a crisis situation. Or in my team of survivors.

Is the original poster going to say more or just post a wikipedia-researched article?

[WowMutt]

I would say that it's also assumed that the military was brought in prior to the realization that these are "zombie's" and as such the more wounded soildier at med stations inside a military defence would eventually be over-run from the inside.

[Death689God]

Originally Posted by Cattivo

You would think that napalm would be very effective against large groups of zombies packed together...

Oh yes, because, as we all know, a Zombie Grabbing at you and bumping into things isn't dangerous enough. We need them to be on FIRE for a good 5-10 mins first!

As for whose fault it is... I think it would take a while for people to realize what's going on. I mean, yeah we have zombie media but still we'd look for every possible alternative bore saying "yep "zombies"". In the Walking Dead Universe, the Zombie Genre never made a big hit on mainstream culture, they have no idea what these things are! They might even think they can't be stopped unless they see one go down to a head shot... The Psychological Factors, along with how long it'd take to figure it all out, are probably the main cause.

Imagine, for a moment: being forced to play a type of game you've never played, from a Genre you're unfamiliar with, on a console you didn't even know existed, without a manual, controls option, or in game tutorials... Now add to it you only get one life, and if you lose it it's game over forever and you can't even tell anyone else playing what you've learned unless you meet them and have the conversation in game.

I think it's pretty obvious why The Walking Dead world went to shit.

[fanganga]

Originally Posted by WowMutt

I would say that it's also assumed that the military was brought in prior to the realization that these are "zombie's" and as such the more wounded soildier at med stations inside a military defence would eventually be over-run from the inside.

This. No matter how well versed people are in zombie lore, they're not going to abandon or finish off the wounded on the basis of what has been, up until that moment, fiction. Which means that the police and military are going to have lots of potential reanimatees behind the lines before reported disasters proving that people who are dead and dying will soon become the enemy.

( I mentioned police, but if the thing got off to a slow start and the cops tried arresting the "crazy junkies", they might be the first to go)

[Rommel49]

Originally Posted by Death689God

Oh yes, because, as we all know, a Zombie Grabbing at you and bumping into things isn't dangerous enough. We need them to be on FIRE for a good 5-10 mins first!

Napalm burns at a minimum temperature (from what I remember) of around 1,500 degrees F, with a high-end of a little over 2,000 F. Even ignoring the fact that it'd likely cook a zombie's brain inside the skull (water boils at what, a couple hundred degrees?), it's still going to destroy muscle tissue, ligaments, etc. which'll keep it from moving.

Considering a single air-dropped bomb effects an area of something like a few thousand yards, it's a valid point. If you're close enough to be grabbed, you screwed up and have bigger problems anyway, like being in the area of effect.

As for whose fault it is... I think it would take a while for people to realize what's going on. I mean, yeah we have zombie media but still we'd look for every possible alternative bore saying "yep "zombies"". In the Walking Dead Universe, the Zombie Genre never made a big hit on mainstream culture, they have no idea what these things are! They might even think they can't be stopped unless they see one go down to a head shot... The Psychological Factors, along with how long it'd take to figure it all out, are probably the main cause.

Imagine, for a moment: being forced to play a type of game you've never played, from a Genre you're unfamiliar with, on a console you didn't even know existed, without a manual, controls option, or in game tutorials... Now add to it you only get one life, and if you lose it it's game over forever and you can't even tell anyone else playing what you've learned unless you meet them and have the conversation in game.

I think it's pretty obvious why The Walking Dead world went to shit.

The only infantrymen that really have a "one shot, one kill" mentality are snipers, the overwhelming majority of ammunition expended during a firefight is used for stuff like suppressive fire (i.e. just spraying rounds in the general direction of the enemy so they're more focused on trying to stay alive under cover rather than oh, trying to kill you), with zombies, you don't need to bother since they can't shoot back and won't bother trying to avoid incoming fire. You can just take aimed shots as you like, then fall back if necessary. You shouldn't be outrun by shambling zombies either (even without motor transport), and shots against the hip or legs are still going to cripple them, since those structures simply can't bear weight when shattered by having holes punched in them.

Even if we exclude heavy stuff like armor and artillery (which zombies can't do squat against) and assume just infantry, just by virtue of probability, the amount of lead thrown into the air will guarantee killed/crippled zombies even if they don't know or even consider aiming for the head... and the instant they see one go down to a head shot, that news is going out over the radio.

[def_c�n]

Originally Posted by WowMutt

I would say that it's also assumed that the military was brought in prior to the realization that these are "zombie's" and as such the more wounded soildier at med stations inside a military defence would eventually be over-run from the inside.

yes i think tihis is what happened a lot in civil areas, police, military and so on.
i think when they REALLY realise what happened the command and operation structure was already broke down. and with no logistic support, they can´t resist long at any point.

also perhaps most of the national gurad was at home by their families when the outbreak cames.

that is the main question: how fast was the outbreak? was there any signs for it? any time to respond? or did they just underestimate the whole situation?

[Death689God]

Originally Posted by Rommel49

Napalm burns at a minimum temperature (from what I remember) of around 1,500 degrees F, with a high-end of a little over 2,000 F. Even ignoring the fact that it'd likely cook a zombie's brain inside the skull (water boils at what, a couple hundred degrees?), it's still going to destroy muscle tissue, ligaments, etc. which'll keep it from moving.

Considering a single air-dropped bomb effects an area of something like a few thousand yards, it's a valid point. If you're close enough to be grabbed, you screwed up and have bigger problems anyway, like being in the area of effect.




The only infantrymen that really have a "one shot, one kill" mentality are snipers, the overwhelming majority of ammunition expended during a firefight is used for stuff like suppressive fire (i.e. just spraying rounds in the general direction of the enemy so they're more focused on trying to stay alive under cover rather than oh, trying to kill you), with zombies, you don't need to bother since they can't shoot back and won't bother trying to avoid incoming fire. You can just take aimed shots as you like, then fall back if necessary. You shouldn't be outrun by shambling zombies either (even without motor transport), and shots against the hip or legs are still going to cripple them, since those structures simply can't bear weight when shattered by having holes punched in them.

Even if we exclude heavy stuff like armor and artillery (which zombies can't do squat against) and assume just infantry, just by virtue of probability, the amount of lead thrown into the air will guarantee killed/crippled zombies even if they don't know or even consider aiming for the head... and the instant they see one go down to a head shot, that news is going out over the radio.

Yeah, but, IDK. The idea of corpses walking at you. I know a guy who said he'd dessert if that stuff went down... I mean, a wall of lead is good and all, but also from what I know of the military they're trained for body shots right?
What if word comes in of people putting whole clips into these walking corpses, but they won't stop. Maybe fall to the ground, but still not end them.

(PS: In the TV Series, Randal was up and moving around with a broken neck... So, I mean...)

[thestalkinghead]

this kind of story may sort of explain why the military would loose 1 fight, but how many times would they fail so bad before people actually came up with a good plan?

i dont think it would take long, and even if the military had already sent in and lost it's more traditional front line forces, they would still have thousands of troops (people on ships/aircraft carriers and in secure bases) to deploy their more well thought out plans.

[Rommel49]

Originally Posted by Death689God

Yeah, but, IDK. The idea of corpses walking at you. I know a guy who said he'd dessert if that stuff went down... I mean, a wall of lead is good and all, but also from what I know of the military they're trained for body shots right?
What if word comes in of people putting whole clips into these walking corpses, but they won't stop. Maybe fall to the ground, but still not end them.

(PS: In the TV Series, Randal was up and moving around with a broken neck... So, I mean...)

When there is an oppurtunity to make aimed shots, yeah, we're taught to aim center mass (simply because it's easier to hit, especially when time is a factor). Even then, the rifle's typically a support weapon; everything else in the arsenal inflicts more casualties. The rifle's primary use is to keep the enemy pinned until you can have something bigger come along to finish them off. That being said, we do wear helmets for a reason (granted, shrapnel's a part of that reason).

Hell, even if someone who didn't know that shots to the head were needed to kill them, it'd actually be pretty intuitive to shoot them in the face anyway. This shmuck trying to bite folks isn't dying after being shot X number of times in the chest? Well then, we can atleast keep him from biting by turning his head into chunky salsa, he can't bite anybody if he doesn't have a mouth anymore.