# "The Caine Mutiny" -- a couple of questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 14, 2006, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-caine-mutiny-a-couple-of-questions/339904 "2006-01-14T00:28:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-caine-mutiny-a-couple-of-questions/339904/1 "2006-01-14T00:28:32Z")
I’m about halfway through the movie and wanted to pop off a couple questions before I forget. 1. When The Caine is escorting the Marines, everyone smears white gunk on their faces. What’s that about? 2. On Admiral Halsey’s ship, some of the personnel are wearing outfits in red, yellow, green and blue with cunning matching hats. What’s up with the outfits? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-caine-mutiny-a-couple-of-questions/339904/2 "2006-01-14T00:32:45Z")
Going strictly from memory and a small familiarity with the military of the time: 1. Anti-flash cream 2. The suits designate flight-deck duties or other such specialized endeavours. Red for firefighters, yellow for deck crew, blue for flight ops, etc. (The colors I just pulled out of my ass.) ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-caine-mutiny-a-couple-of-questions/339904/3 "2006-01-14T00:59:11Z")
What is anti-flash cream? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-caine-mutiny-a-couple-of-questions/339904/4 "2006-01-14T01:16:10Z")
Anti-flash cream was a protectant, not unlike zinc oxide, designed to protect the skin from gun flash, explosion and the like. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-caine-mutiny-a-couple-of-questions/339904/5 "2006-01-14T15:37:47Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > 1. The suits designate flight-deck duties or other such specialized endeavours. Red for firefighters, yellow for deck crew, blue for flight ops, etc. (The colors I just pulled out of my ass.) Don’t know about WWII, but here are the [current colours](http://navysite.de/cvn/catcolor.htm) (jersey/helmet): **Blue/blue:** Aircraft handlers **Blue/white:** Aircraft elevator operators and phone talkers **Blue/yellow:** Aircraft directors **Yellow/yellow:** Aircraft handling officers **Yellow/green:** Catapult and arresting gear officers **Green/green:** Catapult and arresting gear crew, Airwing maintenance, photographer’s mates **Green/yellow:** Catapult and arresting gear officers **Green/white:** Cargo handling personnel, helicopter landing signal enlisted personnel **Green/brown:** Air wing quality control personnel **White/(none):** Landing Signal Officer (LSO) **White/white:** Air transfer officers, medical personnel, visitors **White/green:** Squadron plane inspectors, LOX crews **Brown/brown:** Air Wing Plane Captains, Air Wing Line Leading Petty Officers **Brown/red:** Air wing helicopter captains **Purple/purple:** Aviation fuels **Red/red:** Ordnance, crash crews, explosive ordnance disposal ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-caine-mutiny-a-couple-of-questions/339904/6 "2006-01-14T20:13:29Z")
“Caine Mutiny” is one of my favorite movies and has one Hell of a performance from Jose Ferrer. Anyway, now that the OP has been answered here’s a question: How did the 3 officers of the Caine get permission from Captain Queag to travel to Admiral Halsey’s ship? (Did they just “sneak out” when he wasn’t looking? 😃 ) That part always made me wonder.