Why the hoods?

I've seen this kind of head wear in many a naval film, usually worn by the sailors in the naval big guns. Does anyone know why are they worn and if they have an official name?

http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=38752

Thanx in advance

[Oberon]

Anti-Flash gear I think. To help prevent parts of the body being hit by flash burns.

Thank you Oberon.

Originally Posted by Oberon

Anti-Flash gear I think. To help prevent parts of the body being hit by flash burns.

That would be correct!

It's just called 'Flash Gear' though.

[mapuc]

I don't know about other countries, But here in Sweden the hoods is a kind of flameprotection.

Example

I was in the swedish navy and in some execise we put some kind of skin cream on our neck, chin and forehead and thereafter we pull over our head this hood and over that the helmet.

Hope this will help

Markus

[Gorduz]

Yep we called it flash gear as well. Useful in both fire, and cold (at least ours, made of some sort of synthetic wool)

[Spoon 11th]

Same kind of thing that the race car drivers use.

[TteFAboB]

Ah, but that doesn't tell the whole story, does it?

It all started in the Russo-Japanese war. The Japanese were short on manpower and they would recruit pretty much anybody as a sailor. Since the work on the turrets was very dangerous, they'd leave that for the less valuable men.

Two weeks into the war Togo decided to recruit Ninjas to work on the turrets but they refused to touch the Navy's uniform and prefered to remain in their black battle suits. A few of them also got to man the guns on Merchants and when the Russians discovered them after capturing a Merchant they adopted the idea.

American, Canadian and other Merchants that also got in contact with the Ninjas decided to copy the hood too. And from then on more and more Navies "Ninjafied" their gun crews.



...


PS:

[mapuc]

Originally Posted by TteFAboB

Ah, but that doesn't tell the whole story, does it?

It all started in the Russo-Japanese war. The Japanese were short on manpower and they would recruit pretty much anybody as a sailor. Since the work on the turrets was very dangerous, they'd leave that for the less valuable men.

Two weeks into the war Togo decided to recruit Ninjas to work on the turrets but they refused to touch the Navy's uniform and prefered to remain in their black battle suits. A few of them also got to man the guns on Merchants and when the Russians discovered them after capturing a Merchant they adopted the idea.

American, Canadian and other Merchants that also got in contact with the Ninjas decided to copy the hood too. And from then on more and more Navies "Ninjafied" their gun crews.



...


PS:

An interesting story. but In the swedish navy everyone has a hood on him fram the sailor to the commander. well sometimes my commander, had his on.

Markus

Thank you everyone. The hoods act as a second skin (some as a third with a lotion in between), to avoid burns when the big guns go bang.

Thanx again
waste gate

[Wim Libaers]

So why don't we see eye protection? You'd think getting your eyes burned would be worse (and much harder to fix) than getting your skin burned.

Originally Posted by Wim Libaers

So why don't we see eye protection? You'd think getting your eyes burned would be worse (and much harder to fix) than getting your skin burned.

Flash gear prevents hair mostly from becoming inflamed. Eyes are not hairy so therefore they need no protection. Also, you don't want any type of plastic to melt into your eyes. That would be far worse. Flash gear is not used to fight fires, it's used for quickly escaping from areas that have fire or may become inflamed. It is the first thing sailors in the US Navy don (put on) before putting on any other gear such as an FFE suit (Fire Fighting Esemble) which is used to fight fires in. The FFE suit is like a heavy weight civilian firemen's suit and it comes complete with a firemen's hard hat with face shield. This is put on after the OBA (Oxygen Breathing Apparatus, a special chest worn device that contains a canister that produces about 30-60 minutes of clean oxygen to breathe).

Once you puncture the OBA canister with your OBA oxygen is formed for you to breathe. You then set your timer on top of the OBA to 30 minutes. You then proceed to fight the fire. Once your bell goes off its time for you to leave the area and a replacement takes your place. Teams go down at the same time having set their timers to the exact same time. This way the next team knows when to come and relieve the first team. Once you have left the fire zone and are in the safe zone you need to drop you OBA canister into a metal garbage bin to be disposed of. They get DAMN hot so you shouldn't touch one after it has been punctured.

Also, the canisters are explosive in water. So don't fall of the ship with one on if you want to keep your chest cavity intact. It's like strapping dynamite to your chest.