I agree about the stated reason for the black stack caps.
My entire time in the fleet was aboard one ship, USS Mississippi CGN 40. Being nuclear powered, she didn't have stacks. She had "macks", a word resulting from combining "stack" and "mast". She had a forward mack and an after mack, and they were both painted completely gray. We used to joke that our macks were gray because we didn't blow soot, lol. There was a "sometime" exception to them being completely gray, though. As seen in pictures taken over her lifespan, her largest radar (AN/SPS-48, I think) was sometimes painted black, and sometimes gray. I don't know why. In hindsight, I speculate as to whether that was at the discretion of someone; such as the Captain, Division Officer, or whatever.
My entire time in the fleet was aboard one ship, USS Mississippi CGN 40. Being nuclear powered, she didn't have stacks. She had "macks", a word resulting from combining "stack" and "mast". She had a forward mack and an after mack, and they were both painted completely gray. We used to joke that our macks were gray because we didn't blow soot, lol. There was a "sometime" exception to them being completely gray, though. As seen in pictures taken over her lifespan, her largest radar (AN/SPS-48, I think) was sometimes painted black, and sometimes gray. I don't know why. In hindsight, I speculate as to whether that was at the discretion of someone; such as the Captain, Division Officer, or whatever.
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