Pentagon has zombie apocalypse plan

Zombies stumble across the East Plaza of the U.S. Capitol to promote 'The Warehouse: Project 4.1' urban haunted house in Rockville, Maryland, on Wednesday, October 3, 2012.

• Pentagon planners draw up disaster plans to deal with different contingencies


• Planners created an attack by the walking dead to plan for large-scale operations


• Tactics include "concentration of all firepower to the head, specifically the brain"

Washington (CNN) -- Never fear the night of the living dead -- the Pentagon has got you covered.

From responses to natural disasters to a catastrophic attack on the homeland, the U.S. military has a plan of action ready to go if either incident occurs.

It has also devised an elaborate plan should a zombie apocalypse befall the country, according to a Defense Department document obtained by CNN.

In an unclassified document titled "CONOP 8888," officials from U.S. Strategic Command used the specter of a planet-wide attack by the walking dead as a training template for how to plan for real-life, large-scale operations, emergencies and catastrophes.

And the Pentagon says there's a reasonable explanation.

"The document is identified as a training tool used in an in-house training exercise where students learn about the basic concepts of military plans and order development through a fictional training scenario," Navy Capt. Pamela Kunze, a spokeswoman for U.S. Strategic Command, told CNN. "This document is not a U.S. Strategic Command plan."

Nevertheless, the preparation and thoroughness exhibited by the Pentagon for how to prepare for a scenario in which Americans are about to be overrun by flesh-eating invaders is quite impressive.

Read the Pentagon's Zombie apocalypse plan

A wide variety of different zombies, each brandishing their own lethal threats, are possible to confront and should be planned for, according to the document.

Zombie fans gathered by the thousands at the first-ever Walker Stalker Con, which celebrated the "The Walking Dead" and all things horror this past weekend in Atlanta. In this photo, Forrest Ainsworth, from Canton, Georgia, dresses as Rick Grimes from the popular television series "The Walking Dead."

The event gave people a chance to show off their best costumes. Pictured here is Gilbert Moreno from the interactive horror production "Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse."

Darbella Knight plays Darbie Doll.

Bob "Pork" Bass poses as his character "Human Pork."

Stan Bowman, who has been interested in zombies since a kid, poses as his character "Stan the Zombie."

Russel Blalock, from Augusta, Georgia, dressed as "Beaker the Zombie Killer."

Doug Schafer poses with the animatronic "Psych Ward Sally."

Anissa Camp, who is a big fan of "The Walking Dead," drove from Ft. Worth, Texas.

Hieu Dinh of yeszombies.com poses for a portrait.

Jordan Nash, from Ohio, dressed as Rick Grimes.

Sharon Talley, from Rome, Georgia, is a fan of The Walking Dead and a friend of one of the special effects artists on the show.

Rich Feezle dressed as Daryl Dixon from "The Walking Dead."

Jasmine Anderson dressed as Michonne from "The Walking Dead."

Jason Dempsey, from Cincinnati, Ohio, dressed as Rick Grimes.

Kelsey Rose dressed as Daryl Dixon.

Philip Quilang dressed as the self-titled zombie "Target Practice."

Josh Longino is a zombie with the haunted house Chambers of Horror.

Sal "Junior" Martinez, from Columbus, Ohio, dressed as Rick Grimes.

Mitchell Williams, from Duluth, Georgia, poses in zombie dress.

Lewis Christmas, from Madison, Florida, dressed as a zombie.

Erik Smoak and Sarah Kostelnik, both big con fans, dressed as zombies.

Erik Smoak dressed as a zombie.

Steve Malec dressed as Daryl Dixon.

Blaze Farringer, a fetish performer from Miami, Florida, and a performer at Zombie Bash, poses in zombie dress.

Shaun Dunn, from Atlanta, dressed as a zombie clown.

Lindsay Aluaro, from Ontario, Canada, dressed as a zombie.

April Kaszer, from Atlanta, dressed as Zombie Princess Leia.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

Walker Stalker Con

Anderson Cooper: Stop scaring New York!

'Walking Dead' zombies prank NYC

Zombies take to the streets for a cause

Zombies on the run!

Zombie life forms "created via some form of occult experimentation in what might otherwise be referred to as 'evil magic,' to vegetarian zombies that pose no threat to humans due to their exclusive consumption of vegetation, to zombie life forms created after an organism is infected with a high dose of radiation are among the invaders the document outlines."

Every phase of the operation from conducting general zombie awareness training, and recalling all military personnel to their duty stations, to deploying reconnaissance teams to ascertain the general safety of the environment to restoring civil authority after the zombie threat has been neutralized are discussed.

And the rules of engagement with the zombies are clearly spelled out within the document.

"The only assumed way to effectively cause causalities to the zombie ranks by tactical force is the concentration of all firepower to the head, specifically the brain," the plan reads. "The only way to ensure a zombie is 'dead' is to burn the zombie corpse."

There are even contingency plans for how to deal with hospitals and other medical facilities infiltrated by zombies, and the possible deployment of remote controlled robots to man critical infrastructure points such as power stations if the zombie threat becomes too much.

A chain of command from the President on down along with the roles to be played by the State Department and the intelligence community for dealing with the zombie apocalypse are clearly spelled out in the document.

'Walking Dead' finale: The biggest reveals

The training document was first reported by Foreign Policy magazine.

This is also not the first time zombies have been used as the antagonist in U.S. government training operations. Both the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Homeland Security have used the creatures as a vehicle for training their personnel in the past.

Defense officials stress the report in no way signals an invasion of zombies is on the horizon. The only real purpose of the document was to practice how to execute a plan for handling something as large and serious a situation like flesh-eating beings trying to overrun the United States.

And why zombies?

Officials familiar with the planning of it say zombies were chosen precisely because of the outlandish nature of the attack premise.

"Training examples for plans must accommodate the political fallout that occurs if the general public mistakenly believes that a fictional training scenario is actually a real plan," the document says. "Rather than risk such an outcome by teaching our augmentees using the fictional 'Tunisia' or 'Nigeria' scenarios used at (Joint Combined Warfighting School), we elected to use a completely impossible scenario that could never be mistaken as a real plan."

So, practice for the when, where and how to plan for a more likely disaster scenario? Yes. But zombies of all stripes would be well advised to take note of this directive to Strategic Command personnel buried within the document.

"Maintain emergency plans to employ nuclear weapons within (the continental United States) to eradicate zombie hordes."