August 13, 2017
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CONTENTS Vol. 9 | Issue 01
NIMITZ NEWS
4 WHATS WITH THE HEAT?! Story by MC3 Leon Wong
Here is your chance to find out why Nimitz Sailors are sweating it out. MC3 Wong gives us a look into the science of why it is so hot in the Arabian Gulf.
12 Nimitz Beats The Heat
Story by MC3 (SW) Weston A. Mohr
Portable fans, sweat rags, water enhancers and much more. Everyone is doing and using what they can to beat the heat and stay safe.
6 Drenched: A First Timer’s Perspective On Surving
Capt. Kevin Lenox Commanding Officer Cmdr. J.W. David Kurtz Executive Officer CMDCM Jimmy Hailey Command Master Chief
MEDIA DEPARTMENT
Lt. Cmdr. Theresa Donnelly PAO Ens. Meagan Morrison DIVO MCCS Ahron Arendes Media DLCPO MCC Grant Probst Media LCPO MCC (SEL) Porter Anderson Media CPO (SEL) MC1 Jose Hernandez Media LPO MC2 Holly Herline Creative Lead MC3 Weston Mohr Phojo WCS MC1 Marcus Stanley MC2 Jessica Gray MC2 Austin Haist MC2 Erickson Magno MC2 Elesia Patten MC2 Ian Zagrocki MC3 Chad Anderson MC3 Kenneth Blair MC3 Colby Comery MC3 Marc Cuenca MC3 Deanna Gonzales MC3 Ian Kinkead MC3 Liana Nichols MC3 Cole Schroeder MC3 Leon Wong MC3 Bethany Woolsey MCSN David Claypool MCSN Cody Deccio MCSN Emily Johnston MCSN Kennishah Maddux MCSN Jose Madrigal
The Arabian Gulf Heat
Story by MC2 (SW/AW/IW) Holly L. Herline
Read a tell all on the sweaty humans on the ship from someone who doesn’t really sweat. 2
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Visible heat spans across the flight deck under the smoldering sun in the Arabian Gulf. A blanket of haze surrounds the ship and the minimal cloud coverage makes next to no difference. The Sailors and Marines working aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) can’t seem to escape the heat, sometimes even within the skin of the ship. With an average heat index of 125 degrees Fahrenheit, the Arabian Gulf is one of the hottest operating areas for the U.S. Navy. Nimitz caught a deployment in the middle of the hottest time of year: summer. The heat in this region can have its effects on the ship and, obviously, the crew.
NIMITZ CAUGHT A DEPLOYMENT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HOTTEST TIME OF YEAR:
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What’s with the
HEAT?! Story By: MC3 Leon Wong
“The Arabian Gulf is as hot as it is due to a number of factors,” said Aerographer’s Mate 2nd Class Cyrel Claudio, from San Diego. “The ratio of land to water favors land; land heats up a lot faster than water does and the lack of moisture continues to produce drier conditions.”
Average air temperatures range from 100 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit with an average heat index of 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat index is the apparent temperature relative to the human body which takes into account the ambient air temperature and humidity. “In the summer, something called
Southwest Monsoon takes place and has a direct effect on the Arabian Gulf,” said Claudio. “High pressure sets up south of the equator pushing winds northwest towards Somalia.” The winds by the equator get shifted to the right due to the Coriolis effect. The Coriolis effect outcome of Earth’s rotation on weather patterns and ocean current. In the northern hemisphere, objects move clockwise, as in the southern hemisphere, objects move counterclockwise. “Winds along the coast of Somalia will cause seas at the surface to deflect to the right,” said Aerographer’s Mate 1st Class Rodney Bruno, from Miami. “This brings cooler subsurface water to the surface, which causes a thermal gradient that will then form a lowlevel jet, called the Somali Jet.” A low-level jet is a stream of relatively strong winds in the lower part of the atmosphere. “The stronger the Southwest Monsoon is, the more moisture will be pushed into the Arabian Gulf,” said Bruno. “This, in turn, will have an effect on the heat index.” Dust and sand from the surrounding land are also suspended into the air from the wind causing the rustic haze to the air and can restrict vision up to 3-5 miles depending on wind speed. Many Sailors and Marines may not be used to the heat in the Arabian Gulf. It not only has an effect on the crew, but the equipment may have a hard time coping with the heat as well. “The heat of the sea surface can also affect our operations aboard the ship,” said Claudio. The average water depth in the Arabian Gulf is roughly 300 feet and sits at about 95 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer. These shallow waters heat rapidly and remain hot throughout the summer, which may
95 WATER 300ft DEEP
have a lasting effect on Nimitz. “The air conditioning and refrigeration systems use sea water to cool the refrigerant,” said Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class Ryan Tavares, from Eureka, California. “Our equipment was designed for a maximum of 90 degree salt water inlet temperature. Perfect conditions would be about 85 degrees, so right now, we’re about 10 degrees over that and it’s causing a lot of problems.” Due to the heat of the sea water, the equipment used to cool the refrigerant works harder and takes much longer to cool than usual. If the equipment itself gets too hot, it will shut down and other air conditioning units would have to pick up the slack. “This is caused by high heat loads from not maintaining air conditioning boundaries, running equipment that doesn’t need to be ran, etc.,” said Tavares. “When an
No Clouds = Direct Sunlight
air conditioning unit shuts down, the other air conditioners that are running pick up the load; almost like a domino effect, one goes down, then two go down, and so on and so forth until we can get it under control.” Although personnel around the ship may be uncomfortable due to the heat, the primary purpose of the air conditioning on the ship is to cool vital equipment and radars. “The secondary purpose is comfort of the crew,” said Tavares. “We have to keep the radars spinning and the weapons systems cool so that we know where we’re going and have a means to defend ourselves.” As Tavares mentioned before, high heat loads are caused by not maintaining air conditioning boundaries; a simple solution that has a significant impact on not only the crew’s comfort, but the air conditioners as well. “If you open a hatch, you should probably shut it,” said Tavares. “Something simple like shutting a door behind you can easily be a 10 or 15 degree temperature difference in your space. I’ve seen it on this ship, as well as my last. Air conditioning boundaries are vital to keeping your spaces cool.” Although this may be the first time in the Arabian Gulf for many of Nimitz’ crew, many service members have worked tirelessly in this region for many years before them, at sea and on land.
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Working in media, we get to have an outside look into everything happening on the ship. We get to observe, notice and document. We entered the inlet of water known as the Arabian Gulf, many of us for the first time in our careers, at a time of year when the temperature is high, the heat index is higher and you wear the weather like an unwanted winter coat. Unfortunately, we’re told we haven’t even seen the worst of it. The heat seemed to come overnight. You could see it on faces, notice it in the way everyone was moving and very clearly see, feel and smell it by the sweat that ran down faces and turned our dark blue t-shirts all the darker.
PUTTING THE PERSPIRATION INTO PERSPECTIVE
Many of us felt it in the morning as we emerged from our air conditioned berthings. It literally feels like you are stepping into a suit of heat and you have a halo of humidity around you at all times. The mess decks were barren that first day. It was far too hot to eat, much less stand in any sort of line to get food.
INTRO BY MC3 LEON WONG
STORY BY MC2 HOLLY L. HERLINE
“As I take a step in to the hangar bay of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68), my glasses and camera lens fogs up instantaneously. Glancing at the deck, I see that the non-skid is wet, possibly from the sweat of hard-working Sailors and Marines working atop multimillion dollar aircraft, or probably just the humidity. As I pace back and forth, waiting for my lens to acclimate from the air conditioned media space to the humidity of the hangar bay, I thought about the other different places on the ship that are hot. Laundry press decks, reactor propulsion spaces, the flight deck, trash rooms; how do these Sailors and Marines beat the heat?”
It was almost as if you could catch eyes with anyone on the ship and know exactly what they were thinking. Soaked and carrying a little extra weight in sweat on their uniforms, everyone walked around that day with a blank stare and a slight bewilderment on their faces about this heat. I learned a lot about the different places that you can sweat from, which I can assure you is literally every square inch of your body. I can’t speak for everyone else but I’m sure a lot of our experience with that first shower in the gulf was similar: Enter shower. Turn knob quarter turn
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expecting cold water to wash away the hellish heat from your body. Instead the only thing you feel is water ranging in temperature from luke warm bath water to hot. You then think to yourself that this must be a mistake. You turn the water off to reset everything and this time you poke the knob ever so slightly keeping it as close as possible to the “C” that indicates cold water until a useable amount is coming from the shower head. Surely it must be cold. Wrong! Warm… It’s around this time that me and many of my shipmates probably realized that showers out here are, more times than not, only good for pretending to feel clean. As you are getting dressed you realize that between daily showers and constant sweating, you may never be completely dry out here again. The cool air in the berthing that had been left over and lingering from the night before had dissipated over the course of the day. That first night I climbed in and out of my rack at least four times making wardrobe changes to find out the sleeping attire that would keep me the coolest at night. Despite rack curtains being one of the only ways to find privacy on this ship, there use came to a sudden and abrupt halt after entering 5th Fleet. The chance of catching a cold breeze while lying in your rack strongly, in my opinion, outweighs any sense of desire for sleeping behind a heat trapping curtain. Imagine laying completely still with no activity and still sweating enough to wake up with a layer of sweat on your body and remanence of it on your bedding. Needless to say, I started my second day in need of another one of those lukewarm showers and being reminded that the heat was real and here to stay. 7
moisture. As for the humans, we are constantly sweating no matter what we do. Whether we are eating, working, cleaning or even sleeping, it’s rare to find anyone without a sweat bead forming somewhere on their body. As our time in the Gulf continues, these conditions have become more and more bearable. As our bodies acclimate to the heat, the looks of bewilderment have faded, life has returned into the faces of many of the Sailors aboard and operating in the heat is getting easier every day. Although you can still pass by a space where the heat literally takes your breath away, spirits are high aboard Nimitz. Everyone has developed their own rituals and processes for staying cool. Surviving this heat is becoming fathomable, we’re almost too sweaty to comprehend how it’s possible, but it’s fathomable none the less.
The average heat index has hovered somewhere around the 125-degree mark and is nothing near close to any form of weather many have experienced in the states. Missing home, land and the amenities of the real world is one thing, but having a challenging time escaping the heat adds an entirely other aspect to being on deployment. The worst part? No one adequately prepares you for hot it is actually going to be and feel. No one mentions how sweaty you are going to be, that your uniform will never be completely dry or how there will be nowhere for you to escape the heat when your ship is operating in the Gulf. There is no explanation as to why no one even so much as tips you off to the oven-like conditions you will endure. More than likely it’s because it’s almost impossible to even attempt to get anyone who hasn’t experienced this to fathom just how hot it is. Over the last couple weeks, I’ve seen people sweat in ways I didn’t even know existed. You have the maintainers who work in the 8
hangar bays all day. They can often be seen with a trail of sweat leading from either side of their face, meeting at the chin and dripping or pouring down to their chest. The crash and salvage Sailors, the ones that wear the silver firefighting suits regardless if there is a fire currently blazing or even imminent, take their breaks with their faces red and dripping sweat as they chug water with their hot suits dropped around their ankles. Then there are the engineering and reactor guys that come up from their spaces looking as though they just exited a pool wearing their uniform. There are the air rates that work on the flight deck and come down wearing jerseys with a visible vest of sweat from where their float coat once sat. Each of the sailors aboard have their own unique way of sweating and it usually makes it easy to tell what part of the ship they work in; usually. Everything on the ship sweats. The equipment, the bulkheads, the deck and literally everything else imaginable is always dripping or holding 9
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BEAT average human With the aircraft The body regulates itself to 98.6 carrier USS degrees Fahrenheit. When the temperature outside is greater than Nimitz (CVN that, your body uses sweat to cool down. Your body can only 68) supporting itself take so much heat before it can’t anymore, which leads to Operation Inherent handle injury and will take you out of the Resolve combat fight. span running from missions from the JulyIn a2410-day – Aug. 4, There were heat related injuries reported Arabian Gulf, where 12 aboard the ship. the Heat Index can “I have to constantly be hydrating,” said Aviation reach upwards Boatswain’s Mate (Equipment) Class Sime Facini, from New of 125 degrees 3rd York. “I never knew I could sweat Every time I come down Fahrenheit, sofrommuch. the flight deck I take my shirt there is a new and squeeze it out. By the end of day I bet I could fill a bucket threat to the safety the full of sweat.” made of steel, the inside of the crew – ofBeing the skin of the ship can almost heat stress. be as hot as it is on the flight deck. Buckets are filled with ice
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from the galley so that Sailors can have some cold water before it turns warm. Fan coil maintenance throughout the ship has to be done on a weekly basis to increase air flow throughout the ship. It’s so hot out that it’s considered lucky if you get a cold shower. “I haven’t touched the hot water knob once since we’ve gotten to the gulf,” said Facini. “Since we use the water from outside, it’s usually very warm. So we work in hot conditions then take a warm shower and then go right back to sweating.” Lt. Magnus Perkins, Nimitz’s industrial hygiene officer from Wayne, Ill., and Nimitz’ Safety Officer, Cmdr. Jason Thompson, from El Paso, Texas, have recognized the issues affiliated with the heat of the Arabian Gulf and have revamped Nimitz’s heat stress prevention program. “The name of the game is ‘stay cool’, and the best part is that we can all win with a little bit of
Story By: MC3 (SW) Weston Mohr
A nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is arguably one of the most dangerous work places in the world. Aircraft loaded with ordnance are launched day and night in some of the most hostile areas of the world; but the enemy and workplace hazards aren’t the only danger. knowledge,” said Perkins. Heat acclimatization can take anywhere from five days to 12 weeks, where the typical individual usually acclimates within two weeks. The recommended water intake during these high heat conditions is a quart per hour. “Surprisingly, a lot of our heat stress casualties had to do with Sailors not eating, instead of hydration,” said Perkins. “So in addition to hydrating, Sailors should be eating regular meals to keep their energy up so their bodies can make their own electrolytes when needed.” Sailors are recommended to steer clear of caffeinated drinks such as energy drinks and coffee as it causes further dehydration. “Heat casualties detract from mission readiness,” said Thompson. “So far we’ve lost 270 man hours due to heat related injuries. We urge all supervisors to keep an eye on their Sailors and get them out of the hot spaces and into the cool ones to
recover.” There are chairs set up in the mess decks for those Sailors without air conditioned spaces to cool down before having to go back to work. Changes have been made to the ship’s uniform standards to account for the increased temperature. These changes include being able to wear coveralls at “half-mast”, meaning tied around a Sailor’s waist. Flight deck jerseys need not be worn unless on the flight deck. This helps Sailors, like Facini, who are in the heat most of the day. “The heat isn’t going away any time soon,” said Facini. “the only thing to do is wait for your body to acclimate and stay hydrated. If I’m thirsty then it’s too late, because not only do I have to make up for the lack of water in my body, I have to drink enough to account for what I’m about to sweat out.” Many Sailors have embraced that the heat is here to stay and have come up with new ways to try
and keep cool. Some Sailors use USB powered fans in their racks in addition to the air conditioning in their berthings. A simple thing such as closing a hatch or door behind you can mean a huge difference in keeping your space cool. It’s easier to keep a space cool than to cool it down. Surrounded by water, it’s next to impossible to escape the heat of the scorching sun. As long as Sailor’s are doing everything in their power to beat the heat, there is next to nothing that can bring down the crew of the mighty warship Nimitz. The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is deployed in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. While in the region, the strike group is conducting maritime security operations to reassure allies and partners, preserve freedom of navigation, and maintain the free flow of commerce.
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crossword
channel list
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CH. 02- TRAINING CH. 03- MOVIE CHANNEL CH. 04- MOVIE CHANNEL CH. 05- MOVIE CHANNEL CH. 06- AFN CH. 07- AFN CH. 08- AFN CH. 09- MOVIE CHANNEL CH. 10- ILARTS CH. 11- MOVIE CHANNEL CH. 12- SCROLLER CH. 13- TRAINING
sudoku
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1. AN Matthew Martin stands a full bore watch in the Strait of Hormuz. Photo by MC3 Leon Wong 2. ABHAN Derek Slater picks up his firefighting boots after a crash-and-salvage watch. Photo by MC3 (SW) Weston Mohr 3. An F/A-18E Super Hornet, from VFA-146, launches from the flight deck. Photo by MC3 (SW) Ian Kinkead 4. Sailors on the rigging team work and cool off during a replenishment-at-sea. Photo by MC3 (SW) Ian Kinkead 5. Sailors conduct honor guard practice aboard USS Nimitz (CVN 68). Photo by MC3 Leon Wong 6. Sailors move ordnance aboard the flight deck off USS Nimitz (CVN 68). Photo By MC3 (SW) Ian Kinkead 7. Sailors play football on the flight deck of USS Nimitz (CVN 68). Photo By MC2 (SW/AW/IW) Holly Herline 8. An MH-60S Sea Hawk from HSC-8 patrols above Nimitz. Photo by MCSN (SW/AW) Cody Deccio 9. Sailors recieve supplies aboard Nimitz during an UNREP. Photo By MC3 (SW) Weston A. Mohr
find chester Admiral Chester Nimitz’s face is hidden somewhere in every Nimitz News. Can you find him?
trivia beat the heat edition
weekly throwback “AT1 Keith Hale performs air filter maintenance on one of Nimitz’ many ventilation sytems.” 1997
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Dust and sand from the land surrounding the Arabian Gulf are suspended into the air from the wind causing the rustic haze to the air and can restrict vision to how many miles? Read “What’s With The Heat?!” in this edition of Nimitz News to find the answer.
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Nimitz News accepts submissions in writing. All submissions are subject to review and editing. “Nimitz News” is an authorized publication for the members of the military services and their families. Its content does not necessarily reflect the official views of the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Navy, or the Marine Corps and does not imply endorsement thereby.
1| BM1 Harry Crawford, from Dallas, wipes sweat off the face of AN Tray Chaney, from Lebanon, Mo.|MC3 Wong 2| AMAN Clifton Hill, from Louisville, Ky., performs maintenance on the hydraulics of an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter, from the “Wolf Pack” of (HSM) 75.|MC3 Wong 3| BMSN Eric Self, from Trenton, N.J., prepares line for a replenishment-at-sea.|MC3 Kinkead 4| A03 Brandi Handley, from Las Vegas, tightens safety wire with safety wire pliers in the rescue crane of an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter, from the “Wolf Pack” of (HSM) 75.|MCSN Maddux 5| AD2 Samuel Cordova, from Casa Grande, Ariz., and ADAN Kelsey Thomas, from Boardman, Ohio, remove the tail rotor paddles to an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter, from the “Wolf Pack” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 75.|MC3 Mohr 6| Sgt. Jamal Doucet, from Palmetto, La., rests in the shade from the wing of an F/A-18C Hornet, from the “Death Rattlers” of (VMFA) 323.|MC3 Kinkead
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