Cold Weather Gear

Happy Black Friday everyone!

Since it's shopping season and since it's 28 degrees outside and there's ice forming on the pond behind our house, I'll tell you about the cold weather gear I used for the past two years driving in and out of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Granted, being on the bridge of a submarine presents a unique set of circumstances - namely being stationary and exposed to the elements for several hours.  Someone on the bridge of some other type of surface ship would presumably be able to step inside the pilot house to get shelter from the wind, rain, and snow.  Other people who brave the cold for recreational activities like skiing tend to be physically active and generate extra body heat in the process, and they can always take a break and step inside the ski lodge for some coffee or hot cocoa.  When you sit or stand in one place on top of the submarine, you aren't doing any exertion to generate body heat, and there's no place to go for shelter.

Before going into the gear I've been using, I should offer a disclaimer on uniform regulations.  There are some differing opinions from one boat to the next, or rather from one CO and COB to the next, on what is allowed to be worn by personnel topside when getting the boat underway and returning to port.  During my JO tour on USS PROVIDENCE operating out of Groton, Connecticut, we absolutely needed good cold weather gear topside and on the bridge, and the Navy didn't sell uniform components that would adequately protect us.  The philosophy on the boat was go buy yourself some good cold weather gear (more specifically - to protect your hands and face) and as long as it's solid black or navy blue, nobody would have a problem with it not being an official part of "the uniform."  That philosophy made sense to me and has stuck with me ever since, much to the chagrin of some of my later COBs who were more insistent on not allowing guys topside to wear anything that wasn't 100% in compliance with the uniform regs.  (Sorry, COBs, no offense intended!)

Headsok

Soon after I reported aboard USS PROVIDENCE, one of the other JOs told me to go to the mall and find the kiosk where they sell headsokz.  It was absolutely essential being on an SSN operating out of Groton.  We drove in and out frequently enough that I had many opportunities either as a topside supervisor or as an OOD on the bridge to put it to use.  It was money very well spent.  Even during my department head tour out of SAN DIEGO, I was very glad I had my headsok and gloves from my JO tour in my locker for port calls in Bangor and Esquimalt and an unexpected surfacing near the Aleutian Islands.  As an XO, I used it supervising linehandlers topside getting the ship underway.  As a CO, I've used it every underway and return to port in Bangor.  Even returning to port in June last year, it was 50 degrees, howling wind and hailing as we drove down the Hood Canal.

Goggles

Initially I used ski goggles, but most ski goggles have some sort of shading like sunglasses to protect from the glare off the snow.  It's almost always overcast in the Pacific Northwest and there's no blanket of snow on the water to reflect the ambient light under the overcast.  I found that I needed something to shield my eyes from the wind, rain, hail, and snow, but I didn't like the light loss with the ski goggles.  I wanted clear lenses.  I tried a few models of ski goggles with clear lenses, but I just didn't like any of them.

Then it occurred to me... I said to myself, "Self, you probably need to check a store that sells motorcycle stuff."  Sure enough!  I stopped at the Harley Davidson shop on my way home one day and found exactly what I was looking for.  However, I also suspected they had a pretty high mark-up given the name brand of the store.  The goggles I wanted were $26 at the store, so I came home and searched for them on Amazon.

$6!  Cha-ching!  Cha-ching!  SCORE!  Now that I go back and look at them again, I see they raised the price, but it's still better than what they wanted at the HD store.  These goggles worked GREAT.  I wish I had thought of motorcycle riding goggles instead of ski goggles sooner so I could have used them from the outset.





Gloves

There are a ton of different styles of cold weather gloves out there.  I ended up making a spreadsheet to compare the thickness of insulation, the type of insulation, the cost, etc.  In the end, I bought the Outdoor Research Remote gloves.  They were pretty expensive, but I found them to be worth the money.  (Aside - the price has come down considerably since I purchased them.)  They have the most insulation and are rated for the coldest temperatures, but they use the Primaloft insulation (more insulating for less thickness, but also more expensive).  Now, they might be too warm for doing any sort of winter sports or outdoor activities where you're moving around and generating more body heat.  However, sitting-still on top of a submarine I found my hands quickly got numb from the cold, and I needed the extra insulation. These gloves did a great job.

If you were shopping around for some good gloves, here are some other features I liked about these gloves that I would recommend looking for:

Idiot Straps.  You fasten the "idiot straps" to your wrists so when you take your gloves off your hands, you don't drop or lose the gloves.  They will dangle from these strap fastened to your wrists.

Loops.  The big nylon-strap loops at the back of the glove make it a lot easier to pull the gloves on in the cold.

Easy-to-operate cinching cords.  The Outdoor Research gloves have a pretty clever system that makes it so you can very easily cinch or uncinch the wrists of your gloves.  Pull the plastic tab on one side, and it cinches them tight.  Pull the plastic tab on the other side, and it uncinches them.

Nose-wipe.  It might sound gross, but I was VERY glad to have this.  Yes, ideally, you would pull a tissue out of your pocket and blow your nose into a tissue.  There are those times when your face is uncovered and your nose starts to run, and you don't have time to dig a tissue out of your pocket before the snot goes rolling down your lip.  This soft material on the back of the thumb is perfectly positioned to do a quick swipe under your nose.



Heat Packs

These sure made the long hours on the bridge more bearable.  There are a dozen brands and sizes to choose from if you search for them online.  The ones I've linked to below aren't particularly noteworthy as being any better than the rest, so shop around and find the best deal.  I just included the link below as an example of what I am trying to describe.

These are very handy little pocket warmers though.  I found they make some for feet that have a peel-away sticky pad to keep them stuck in one place inside your boots.  My toes tended to get really numb after hours in the cold, but I found putting some of these warmers in my boots helped tremendously.  I also put one in each palm of my hand inside my gloves, and it made the surface transit much more comfortable. 




Now if I could just find what the movers did with my cold weather gear...

I miss winter.

Will wonders never cease? It actually looks like we're going to make it into drydock "on schedule" on Tuesday (4 December). I say "on schedule" because it has been postponed a few times. We were originally supposed to go into drydock on 27 September. The first problem was that the submarine already in the drydock was behind schedule and didn't get out of the drydock until a couple of weeks ago. Then the shipyard had to do repairs to the caisson, but they couldn't do it until Congress approved the budget. I was not holding my breath that this would go down on schedule. Luckily, the SY commander found another source of funds to pay for the caisson repairs without waiting for congress to approve the budget.

I hope by writing this, I'm not jinxing us or counting our chicks before they're hatched. Every time I have gone into drydock on each of my previous boats, I have always ended up saying to myself, "Self, you'd think this is the FIRST time a 688-Class submarine has EVER gone into drydock before." It just boggles my mind how many things come up last minute that you would THINK someone would realize, hey, they're going into the drydock in 3 (or 2, or 1) day(s), maybe we should _____________. There's always something. (Aside: That brings to mind stories from the last week in port before deployment, but I'll save that for another blog post).

We did have a Hawaiian priest come down with the CO and Project Sup and say a blessing on the bow of the submarine though. I was glad he said the prayer both in Hawaiian and in English so we could tell what he was saying. I thought that was cool though. It was something new I hadn't seen on previous drydocking availabilities.

So I was cleaning my stuff out of my stateroom on the boat, and came upon all my cold weather gear in the hang-up locker. I love my cold weather gear. You see, growing up in San Diego, I was accustomed to a summer-time-year-round climate. When I joined the Navy, I knew I would be moving around every couple of years, and I wanted to experience life in other parts of the country (and the world). So I volunteered for a boat out of Groton for my JO tour, and the detailer was only oh-so-happy to oblige me (nobody asks for "Rotten Groton"). I loved living in the historic district of Mystic, CT and the changing seasons in New England.

Reminiscing of winter as I cleaned out my hang-up locker on the boat.

When I reported aboard my first boat, all the other officers told me I had to go to the mall and buy a headsok. I did, and I love it. I've used it ever since. When we moved to the DC suburbs for my last shore duty, I upgraded and got a new headsok with the Polartec. By the end of my JO tour, I had the headsok, the UVEX goggles, the polar snow boots (I got them on sale at EMS in the spring! I love EMS!). I even found a pristine pumpkin suit for sale on eBay for 20 bucks.

Me and ES hiking in Northern Virginia, January 2006.

I was very proud of ES that day. We hiked 4 1/2 miles and it was 17 degrees out!

That brought to mind a sea story... Wait, how do sea stories start again? "Once upon a time..." No, that's not it. Oh, I got it. "So there I was..."

Being on a boat out of San Diego, I rarely had the occasion to use my cold weather gear, but I always kept it in my hang-up locker just in case. There were a couple of times when I was really glad I had it, like the time we had to surface near the Aleutian Islands during a transit to Westpac and I was tasked to man the bridge. (The great circle route from San Diego to Yokosuka takes you way up along the Aleutian Island chain).

We pulled into Esquimalt, British Columbia for a port call (it's the Canadian Naval Base right next to Victoria). On our way inbound, it was miserable, cold, and rainy up on the bridge, and I was very glad I was warm and cozy in the Control Room for the maneuvering watch. When the Captain came down from the bridge all cold, rosy-cheeked, and wet, I made the mistake of laughing and commenting on how nice it was in the Control Room. The Captain said, "Congratulations, you just volunteered to be OOD when we drive outta here."

Fast forward to the end of the port call and the morning of the underway. All the JOs (whose only experience had been on this boat out of San Diego) were laughing at me as I "suited-up" for the maneuvering watch. I went to the bridge fully decked-out in my cold weather gear. It was cold and drizzling wet as we got underway, but it... was... AWESOME! I had a BLAST! I love driving the ship. Even better, I love the winter and being suited-up against the cold. I was nice and cozy warm and comfortable. The other guys on the bridge had very lightweight gloves and jackets on and were freezing their butts off and complaining their hands and faces were numb.

I had to laugh a short while later when we were getting ready to go up the Behm Canal into Ketchikan, Alaska, and the guys who were going to man the bridge came and asked me if they could borrow my cold weather gear.

Quick aside: Don't get me wrong when I talk about how cold it was during our port call there. Esquimalt was one of my favorite port calls in my Navy career. LW and ES flew up to Oregon and then drove up to Victoria with my wonderful step-mother. We had a great visit. I could write a whole 'nother blog post about that, but I've kept you staring at your computer screen long enough. I'll save it for another post.

Ahhh, December!

Can you believe it's the last day of November? Thanksgiving has come and gone and we've got our Christmas decorations out. I just put up the lights around the rain gutter and it looked very plain and boring. LW really brought it to life though and did an awesome job with the garland with a strand of lights around the posts in front of our house, plus some red bows, red ornaments, two lit-up penguins, and a submarine wreath on our front door.

Here are three of my favorite things about this time of year (not in any particular order):

- Handel's Messiah. I have mentioned before how military brats can generally place a memory within one or two years' timespan because they remember what house (or church) they were in. The first time I remember hearing Handel's Messiah and it registering in my brain what I was listening to was at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in San Pedro, CA. So that had to have been 3rd or 4th grade when we lived in the San Pedro Navy Housing.

A lot of people just think of this as the "Hallelujah" chorus, but it's sooo much more than that. To be quite honest, the Hallelujah chorus is kind of over-played. It's nice, but so many people use it as a "sound bite" you hear it all the time. I have several almost-favorite parts, but my absolute favorite is the "For Unto Us a Child is Born" in the middle of Part I.

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given:
And the government shall be upon His shoulder:
And His name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

I first became familiar with Handel because of my parents singing in the church choir growing up. For several years now, my mom has sung for the San Diego Master Chorale (picture above). It's been a wonderful treat for me on a handful of occasions to attend some of her Messiah performances in San Diego.

- The Nutcracker. In addition to my parents, I was very blessed to have the influence of my Grandma Kay and Grandpa Ernie on my upbringing. They loved the fine arts and always took me to see performing arts and museums. It's through my grandparents that I learned an appreciation for classical music and Gilbert & Sullivan musicals.

I don't remember exactly when I started going to see the Nutcracker, but it was sort of a Christmas-season tradition for me up through college. LW doesn't care for the ballet much, but she appeased me and went with me to see the Boston Ballet perform The Nutcracker when we got engaged, and it was awesome.

I think in another couple of years I may try to take the boys to see it. I don't think they'd understand it or sit still through it just yet.

- The Army-Navy football game. I am like Bubblehead in that I didn't go to the Naval Academy, but I love the Army-Navy football game. I think I've actually been to the game four times now...
- 1986: My dad took me to my first Army-Navy football game when they played at the Rosebowl, and it was AWESOME.
- 1995: My roommates during prototype in Charleston were USNA grads, and I went with Nate to the game in Philadelphia.
- 1997: Just after we got engaged, LW and I went to the game at Giant Stadium with our friends Chris and Cath (Cath's younger brother was a mid then).
- 2005: I took ES to his first Army-Navy game two years ago in Philadelphia with my friend and former stateroom-mate, Rich.

ES's class mascot "Wings" at the 2005 Army-Navy Game. Each kid in the class got to take Wings home for a weekend and write in a journal about what they did over the weekend, so we took him to the Army-Navy Game.

Me and ES at the 2005 Game (we froze our butts off and had to leave early before poor ES turned into a popsicle).

I love all the tradition and ceremony of the game. The midshipmen and the cadets all march into the stadium. Then you get flyovers by jets and helicopters, and guys will parachute in with the flag for the national anthem. Then they have the exchanging of the prisoners. A handful of cadets go to Annapolis and some mids go to West Point as exchange students each semester. Before the game begins though, they get returned to their home team in an "exchanging of the prisoners ceremony" on the football field.

Exchanging of the Prisoners Ceremony

Each time either team scores, they shoot their cannon or artillery piece and all the plebes do pushups. If the President is there, he starts the game sitting on one side of the field rooting for one team, then at halftime, they have a ceremony where he crosses the field to sit with the other side and rooting for the other team. There are great fight songs the mids sing like, "Gooooooo Migh-ty Na-vy, Go! Go! Migh-ty Na-vy!" and "Go - Navy - Go! Beat Army!"

Unfortunately, you don't get all the ceremony and tradition when you watch it on TV. I still like to watch the game though. That being said, it's time to set the DVR to record it in case I don't wake up in time, and then it's time to hit the rack.

GO NAVY! BEAT ARMY!