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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6454936" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Santa-Claus">Santa Claus</keyword>, a noted globetrotter, is apparently a member of the <keyword id="10485875" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="order-of-the-blue-nose">Order of the Blue Nose</keyword>.</li><li>According to Navy tradition, that accolade is only given to sailors who make it north of the <keyword id="536903" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Arctic-Circle">Arctic Circle</keyword>, and Santa and his elves are lifetime members, according to one Navy command.</li></ul><p>Among Santa Claus' many accolades is membership in one of the US Navy's exclusive orders, a Navy command said on Twitter on Wednesday.</p><p>"Santa and his elves were born into the Order of the Blue Nose," Navy Region Mid-Atlantic tweeted.</p><p>The command, which coordinates shore-based naval personnel and shore activities in the Mid-Atlantic region, added in an image attached to the tweet that the order "is a special designation reserved for personnel who have crossed the <keyword id="59606" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="arctic">Arctic</keyword> Circle above 66°34'N."</p><p>"After completing assigned activities and a line-crossing ceremony, Sailors are welcomed into the Order and given a certificate," the image says.</p><p>According to <a href="https://www.c6f.navy.mil/Press-Room/News/News-Display/Article/2185057/uss-roosevelt-sailors-participate-in-arctic-circle-ceremony/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Navy tradition</a>, sailors crossing into the Arctic Circle enter the realm of Boreas Rex, King of the North. To be accepted, those sailors have to complete a series of challenges.</p><p>It is one of the Navy's rarest line-crossing ceremonies. While Navy submarines <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-submarine-connecticut-drills-during-icex-2020-in-the-arctic-2020-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">regularly operate in the Arctic</a>, Navy surface ships haven't had much reason or time to travel that far north, especially since the end of the Cold War.</p><p>But <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/record-heat-in-the-arctic-is-affecting-ice-cover-fisheries-2020-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">changing climate</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-nato-increasing-military-activity-in-the-arctic-2020-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">renewed tensions with Russia</a> have made the region a higher priority.</p><div type="image" title="Navy order of the Blue Nose Arctic" height="1333" width="2000" msid="79932200" hostid="261"></div><p>USS Harry S. Truman's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-nato-navies-in-arctic-circle-in-harsh-weather-for-trident-juncture-2018-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trip north of the Arctic Circle for a major NATO exercise</a> in late 2018 was the first such trip by a US carrier since the early 1990s. US ships made several <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-surface-ships-sail-into-barents-sea-near-russia-2020-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trips north of the Arctic Circle</a> in 2020, spending much of their time in <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> waters in the Barents Sea, close to major Russian naval installations.</p><p>Sailors aboard guided-missile destroyer USS Roosevelt went through the ceremony on May 3, a few days after sailing into the Arctic Circle. Roosevelt's Command Master Chief James Kuroski, who played the role of Boreas Rex, <a href="https://www.c6f.navy.mil/Press-Room/News/News-Display/Article/2185057/uss-roosevelt-sailors-participate-in-arctic-circle-ceremony/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> the ceremony "an exhilarating experience for the body and mind and soul."</p><p>Another Navy destroyer, USS Thomas Hudner, conducted the ceremony for its sailors <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-destroyer-thomas-hudner-sailed-into-arctic-with-canadian-ships-2020-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">while in the Canadian Arctic for an exercise</a> in August.</p><div type="image" title="Navy order of the Blue Nose Arctic" height="1333" width="2000" msid="79932201" hostid="261"></div><p>"It was about 38 to 42 degrees throughout the morning [of the ceremony], but we rotated everyone through in about 10 minutes ... get wet, get the ice water on you, and then you are initiated into the Kingdom of King Neptune and Boris Rex, which is nice," Cmdr. Brett Litchfield, Hudner's commanding officer, told Insider after the exercise.</p><p>Only 12 members of Hudner's crew had done the ceremony before. "It is slightly rare for surface ships," Litchfield said.</p><p>More recently, USS Ross made its second trip above the Arctic Circle this year, operating in the Barents Sea for 13 days at the end of October before heading to Tromso in northern Norway, where members of its crew joined the Order.</p><div type="image" title="Navy order of the Blue Nose Arctic" height="1574" width="2000" msid="79932203" hostid="261"></div><p>Navy Region Mid-Atlantic mentioned a few of the Navy's other orders on Wednesday, including the <a href="https://twitter.com/CNRMA/status/1341824634694602752?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Order of the Red Nose</a> for sailors who make it into the Antarctic Circle at 66°30'S and the <a href="https://twitter.com/CNRMA/status/1341822538117165061?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Emerald Shellback</a> for sailors who cross the Equator at the Prime Meridian, which runs north-south through the Atlantic.</p><p>Though Santa is known for his travels, the command would only go as far as to say he was "likely" also a Golden Shellback, meaning he had crossed the Equator at the 180th meridian in the Pacific.</p><p>"His official record is heavily classified and @NoradSanta is the official release authority on his travels," the command <a href="https://twitter.com/CNRMA/status/1341819676632952832?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained</a>. Another mystery in the legend of Santa.</p>

The US Navy says Santa and his elves 'were born into' one of its most exclusive clubs

<ul class="summary-list"><li>US Navy destroyer USS Thomas Hudner sailed north on short notice last month to join the Canadian-led exercise <keyword id="9956854" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="operation-nanook">Operation Nanook</keyword>.</li><li>Surface ships like the Thomas Hudner are spending more time in the <keyword id="59606" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="arctic">Arctic</keyword>, but the region still presents acute challenges to military operations and commercial activity.</li></ul><p>When the crew of US Navy destroyer USS Thomas Hudner learned they were participating in the Canadian-led Arctic exercise Operation Nanook last month, they hustled to prepare.</p><p>"Our biggest thing we did for preparations obviously was get in touch with our Canadian counterparts and get a hold of all the messages, [communications] plans, and those types of things," Cmdr. Brett Litchfield, the Hudner's commanding officer, said in an interview this month.</p><p>But "the high fence" they had to clear was getting "dry suits for all of our boat crews and for our personnel that were going to be topside for extended periods of time," Litchfield said. "That's not something we normally have in stock."</p><div type="image" title="Navy destroyer Thomas Hudner Canada Arctic" height="1786" width="2500" msid="78178059" hostid="261"></div><p>Operation Nanook, which ended in late August, was Navy's latest trip north as it refocuses on the Arctic, where <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/record-heat-in-the-arctic-is-affecting-ice-cover-fisheries-2020-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">military and commercial activity</a> is expected to increase as a changing climate makes the region more accessible.</p><p>Vice Adm. Andrew Lewis, head of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navys-2nd-fleet-to-start-agile-operations-to-counter-russia-2019-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Navy's 2nd Fleet</a>, acknowledged before the exercise that the service is still putting "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-putting-survival-gear-back-on-ships-for-arctic-operations-2020-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the proper equipment</a>" for the Arctic back onto its ships.</p><p>Hudner's crew contacted vendors near its home port in Mayport, Florida, and in Norfolk, Virginia, and "were able to get enough for a small portion of our boat crews, but not everyone," Litchfield said.</p><p>Despite that, the crew was very motivated, Litchfield said. "It was a short notice task, and they could have easily just been complaining about it, but they jumped on board [and] took the opportunity."</p><h2>Relearning in the Arctic</h2><div type="image" title="Navy Thomas Hudner Greenland fjord Canada Arctic" height="1667" width="2500" msid="78178060" hostid="261"></div><p>Navy submarines have long been active in the Arctic, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-submarine-connecticut-drills-during-icex-2020-in-the-arctic-2020-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conducting well-known exercises like ICEX</a>. But Navy surface ships are in many cases venturing north for the first time over 30 years.</p><p>"The US surface fleet has had a long absence from the Arctic, and it's only been in the last two years that its started to try to regain [its presence] both in the Northern Atlantic and the Arctic," said Rob Huebert, a professor and Arctic expert at the University of Calgary. "So to a certain degree, what we're seeing is a redevelopment of old skills that were allowed to basically disappear."</p><p>That has required fast learning and a little improvisation. When the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman sailed into the Arctic in 2018, for example, the crew <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-using-baseball-bats-to-smash-ice-build-up-on-aircraft-carriers-2019-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">brought baseball bats</a> to knock ice off the ship's surfaces.</p><p>The Hudner also had to track down more than just cold-weather gear. The waters off western Greenland were wide and deep, Litchfield said, but "the problem we had was we don't normally have the charts in our voyage management system, the digital charts for areas up that high north."</p><p>"So it took us a few weeks to get those charts and get approval to use the Danish charts in our system in order for us to safely navigate," Litchfield added.</p><div type="image" title="Navy Thomas Hudner Canada Arctic MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter" height="1667" width="2500" msid="78178061" hostid="261"></div><p>The Hudner's small-boat operations included search-and-seizure and search-and-rescue exercises with other ships.</p><p>Participating crews were able to tour and conduct exercises on each other's ships, but for a few days during the three-week drill, "the sea state was a little bit high and choppy," Litchfield said. "So it was not safe for a training event to lower the small boats in the water and send people down a ladder off the flight deck to embark those boats."</p><p>Instead, the US destroyer simulated drills that would've required boarding, communicating "bridge to bridge from our liaison officer to the master of the simulated ship to be boarded," Litchfield said.</p><h2>'We know that we can do it'</h2><div type="image" title="Navy destroyer Thomas Hudner Canada Atlantic" height="1667" width="2500" msid="78178062" hostid="261"></div><p>After a post-Cold War break, <keyword id="6356687" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="canada">Canada</keyword>'s military restarted Arctic exercises for regular forces in 2002 and now has knowledge needed to deal with Arctic conditions and problems at high latitudes, like communications interference, Huebert said. (Litchfield said Hudner's internet and phones "got a little spotty" as it sailed north.)</p><p>But Nanook took place during "by far the nicest time of the year," Huebert added. "Toward the end of August, it doesn't get any nicer, any more ice-free, than that. As much as the Canadians can help their allies learn, there's still that learning in the really bad conditions."</p><p>Those aren't the only challenges. One US icebreaker, Healy, recently broke down during a trip to the Arctic. The only other US icebreaker, Polar Star, is over 40 years old and struggles despite constant maintenance.</p><p>Canada's navy recently received HMCS Harry DeWolf, its first ship in decades to be built for Arctic military operations.</p><p>The DeWolf can operate in first-year ice up to a meter thick, Rear Adm. Brian Santarpia, commander of Canadian naval forces in the Atlantic and Arctic, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-putting-survival-gear-back-on-ships-for-arctic-operations-2020-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Insider before Nanook</a>.</p><p>But the US Navy, Huebert said, "there is no surface vessel ... that can go into ice-infested or even ice-covered waters."</p><div type="image" title="Navy destroyer Thomas Hudner Canada Arctic" height="1786" width="2500" msid="78178063" hostid="261"></div><p>Sailing in the Arctic is one thing. Getting somewhere is another.</p><p>"As soon as you go past the Bering Strait, you really don't have any other place that you can go in for infrastructure," and in eastern Canada, "basically once you get past St. John's, Newfoundland, you're on your own," Huebert said.</p><p>Canadian military personnel "will often comment that it was much easier to operate in Afghanistan than it is in the high north, because at least in Afghanistan you have other people's bases," Huebert added.</p><p>Alaskan Sen. Lisa Murkowski <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/us-air-force-arctic-strategy-alaska-and-new-arctic-conversation-alaskas-senators-lisa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> this week <a href="https://www.alaskajournal.com/2020-06-09/corps-oks-618m-plan-port-nome" target="_blank" rel="noopener">that the US</a> was "moving forward finally on a deep-water port in Nome," though Nome is not on <keyword id="20636" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Alaska">Alaska</keyword>'s Arctic coast.</p><p>Canada has <a href="http://www.navy-marine.forces.gc.ca/en/news-operations/news-view.page?doc=operation-nanook-2018-canadian-armed-forces-strengthen-joint-arctic-capabilities/jl8edjzj" target="_blank" rel="noopener">touted</a> Nanisivik Naval Facility in its eastern Arctic as able to support DeWolf-class ships once it opens <a href="https://www.miragenews.com/canada-receives-first-new-arctic-and-offshore-patrol-ship/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in 2022</a>, but it's not clear if it can support foreign ships, Huebert said.</p><p>Litchfield said Nanook was his first Arctic operation in 30 years in the Navy. But, he noted, US ships have participated in Nanook before, and other Navy ships are making <a href="https://www.c6f.navy.mil/Press-Room/News/Article/2290492/uss-roosevelt-earns-arctic-service-ribbon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">extended trips</a> in the Arctic.</p><p>Such operations are "going to become probably more frequent," Litchfield said. "At least we know that we can do it, and we know what we have to do to prepare for it for future operations."</p>

A US Navy destroyer teamed up with Canada's navy to learn how to operate in harsh Arctic conditions

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Navy and Coast Guard are heading back into the <keyword id="59606" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="arctic">Arctic</keyword> this month, joining Canadian, Danish, and French ships for the annual Canadian-led exercise Operation Nanook.</li><li>The US and other navies are increasing their presence in the Arctic as the region grows more accessible, but that requires sailors to adjust their training and their gear for a new, harsh environment.</li></ul><p>The Navy continues to adapt to harsh Arctic conditions, Vice Adm. Andrew Lewis, head of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navys-2nd-fleet-to-start-agile-operations-to-counter-russia-2019-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Navy's 2nd Fleet</a>, said Tuesday.</p><p>After decades focused on other regions, the Navy has been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-surface-ships-sail-into-barents-sea-near-russia-2020-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increasing its presence in the Arctic</a> as it grows more accessible to economic activity and, in turn, to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-xuelong-2-icebreaker-arctic-trump-deals-for-more-2020-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">broader strategic competition</a> with rivals like Russia and China.</p><p>The latest venture north began Tuesday, when Navy and Coast Guard ships joined Canadian, Danish, and French vessels for the annual Canadian-led exercise Operation Nanook in the waters between <keyword id="6356687" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="canada">Canada</keyword> and <keyword id="102244" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Greenland">Greenland</keyword>.</p><p>The exercise consists of "basic tactical operating in the higher latitudes," elements of which are "significantly different than how we operate" elsewhere, Lewis said.</p><p><div type="image" title="Navy destroyer Thomas Hudner MH-60R helicopter" height="1786" width="2500" msid="77433970" hostid="261"></div></p><p>"If you fall in the water where they're going to be operating, you're not going to survive very long unless you have the proper equipment on board, which is something that we have taken off our ships in recent years, and now we've put it back in," Lewis said.</p><p>Other lessons are being relearned, Lewis said, citing the USS Harry S. Truman, which sailed into the Arctic in 2018 — the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trident-juncture-navy-aircraft-carrier-in-arctic-first-since-cold-war-2018-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first such trip by a carrier in decades</a> — with "a bunch of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-using-baseball-bats-to-smash-ice-build-up-on-aircraft-carriers-2019-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">baseball bats</a> to knock ice off the superstructure."</p><p>"You have to have the flexibility and the timing built into your scheme of maneuver ... because the weather has a huge impact on your ability to make it through straits or going through a certain chokepoint," Lewis said.</p><p>US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Thomas Hudner will also do rigid-hull inflatable boat operations as part of the exercise. "It is the first time that we're putting a boat in the water recently in these temperature climates," Lewis said. </p><p><div type="image" title="Navy destroyer Thomas Hudner" height="1667" width="2500" msid="77433971" hostid="261"></div></p><p>"It's by nature a fairly challenging environment anyway," Lewis added. "But then you throw the temperature and the potential sea state being higher — that's something we need to kind of take a crawl-walk-run approach to."</p><p>Nanook will have gunnery and other drills, such as tracking vessels of interest. "A lot of it has to do with basic warfare serials ... and then basic security tasks and operating together," Rear Adm. Brian Santarpia said Tuesday.</p><p>Santarpia, who commands Canadian naval forces in the Atlantic and Arctic, said it was "great" to get sailors into unfamiliar surroundings.</p><p>"Once we put them up there, they're going to solve all the problems on their own," Santarpia said. "They just have to recognize that there is a challenge and then they tend to get after it."</p><h2>'We're going to learn a lot'</h2><p><div type="image" title="Coast Guard Denmark Canada Arctic" height="1647" width="2500" msid="77433974" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The Canadian military has conducted Operation Nanook since 2007, working with local and foreign partners to practice disaster response and maritime security across northern Canada. There will be no operations ashore this year because of COVID-19.</p><p>The Canadian ships left Halifax on Tuesday with <keyword id="145685" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="US-Coast-Guard">US Coast Guard</keyword> medium-endurance cutter Tahoma. They will meet USS Thomas Hudner and sail north to meet French and Danish ships and operate around the Davis Strait, off Greenland's west coast.</p><p>"This will be the farthest north that we have deployed this class of cutter, so we're excited to showcase the agility of our fleet," Vice Adm. Steven Poulin, the Coast Guard's Atlantic Area commander, said Tuesday.</p><p>Lewis and Poulin both said Nanook is a chance to practice adapting to challenges in the Arctic, such as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-planes-lurked-over-navy-submarine-exercise-in-the-arctic-2020-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">communications interference</a>.</p><p>"That's one of the reasons we wanted to push this medium endurance cutter so far north. We're going to learn a lot about our own operations" and about "the logistics chain that's required to support our Coast Guard assets that are so far north," Poulin said.</p><p><div type="image" title="Canada Arctic Nanook" height="678" width="1024" msid="77433976" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The Canadian military adjusted Nanook in 2018 to include "everything we did in the Arctic," Santarpia said. "It demonstrates ... to anybody who is interested in the Arctic that Canada knows ... how to take care of its own security and sovereignty in that area."</p><p>Santarpia said more activity in the Arctic, facilitated by a warming climate, underscores the need to be present there for strategic reasons as well as emergency response.</p><p>"Last year was the warmest year in the Arctic that they've ever had. This year's on pace to be warmer yet. It allows us to operate [there] for a little bit longer," Santarpia said, adding that Canada's navy didn't "have any [Arctic] ability until just Friday, when the very first Canadian Arctic offshore patrol ship was delivered."</p><p>That ship, HMCS Harry DeWolf, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadian-navy-enters-new-era-by-welcoming-long-awaited-arctic-warship/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrived two years late</a>, but five more are to be delivered to Canada's navy and two to its coast guard in the coming years.</p><p>"Next year, it'll be part of the of the exercise, and that vessel can operate actually in the first-year ice that's a meter thick," Santarpia said. But until then the <keyword id="2104293" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Canadian-navy">Canadian navy</keyword> "is limited to where the ice is not pack ice."</p><p>As those waters become navigable for longer periods, "we will slowly be able to spend more time in the north," Santarpia added. "As the new capability comes online ... we'll be up there for the majority of year eventually."</p>

The Navy is putting 'the proper equipment' back on its ships to operate in harsh Arctic conditions

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Adrian Wyld/Pool </span></p><p class="caption">A special operations member of the Canadian Forces takes part in Operation Nanook on the Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba August 24, 2012.</p></div><p></p></div></div>A <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/data-points/poll-majority-americans-worried-about-war-feel-favorably-toward-nato-n723931" target="_blank">recent poll</a> that had input from more than 11,000 people in February shows that about two-thirds of Americans worry that the US will become "engaged in a major war in the next four years."</p><p>The poll determined that 36% of Americans were very worried, 30% were worried, 25% not too worried, and only 8% not worried at all. But when looked at along party lines, a stark divide occurs. </p><p>Among Democrats, a whopping 88% expressed worry over a major war. Only 4 in 10 Republicans felt the same way.</p><p>On the issue of alliances, the US showed greater unity with 62% supporting alliances even if that means compromising, and 80% of respondents supported NATO.</p><p>But on the issue of the US's main geopolitical adversary, Russia, the partisan divide is alive and well. While overall 61% of Americans thought of Russia as unfriendly or an enemy to the US, only 49% of Republicans felt that way compared to 76% of Democrats.</p><p>Within the Republican party, 73% of 18-29 year olds, who grew up post-Cold War thought of Russia as an Ally or friend while 69% of Republicans aged 65 and up thought of Russia as unfriendly or an enemy. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/navy-seal-explains-tips-attacked-by-dog-2017-2">A Navy SEAL explains what to do if you're attacked by a dog</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="lhbDFyOTE6OzheGWIb596U_-Bnp_bK7z" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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The US Navy says Santa and his elves 'were born into' one of its most exclusive clubs

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A US Navy destroyer teamed up with Canada's navy to learn how to operate in harsh Arctic conditions

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The Navy is putting 'the proper equipment' back on its ships to operate in harsh Arctic conditions

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