Anti flash clothing.
To: Capt. Crosswind
Quote:
Lu, the USN not having this clothing at the time of Pearl is incredible. This snippet I picked up from a documentary.
I'm fairly certain that anti flash gear developed from lessons learnt in WWI & most Navies were equipped well before WWII.
I understand from your post that this equipment was not introduced in the USN during WWII, or have I misunderstood?
There is a possibility that gunners in the turrets of large ships may have worn anti flash masks but the average sailor was not so well equipped. I have seen many documentaries about the British Navy and it was shown that sailors at their battle stations wore anti flash masks and I can only assume that the clothing was anti flash as well.
On one of my jobs I had to do the maintainability analysis on the propulsion system of the LHA, which, was steam powered. I got a chance to go aboard several large steam powered ships to talk with the sailors in the “Black Gang”. They indicated that on occasions during the light off there was a flash back where flames were ejected from the light off port on the boiler. I asked about protective clothing and they indicated that there was none.
As a result I wrote an article in a US Navy Safety Magazine outlining my findings. I recommended that at the least the black gang crew be issued Nomex clothing and some face and hand protection. Although the article got critical review nothing was done about my recommendations. At least, not at that time. Now when the ships are in a combat situation some of the crew will wear anti flash clothing.