Welcome back to The All Clear Dispatch, the ship's log of All Clear Performance. Every issue runs a little naval history, some straight talk on training and recovery backed by real research, a featured piece of gear from the store, and a recipe from the galley. All Clear was founded by a U.S. Navy Rescue Swimmer on a simple idea: the same discipline that carries you through cold water and long watches builds a stronger body at home.
From the Logbook: 272 Days and Counting
Right now, as you read this, the crew of USS Abraham Lincoln is living one of the longest deployments in modern Navy history: 272 days and counting, extended twice, with more than 200 of those days spent without a single port call. Not one liberty pier. Not one cold beer ashore. The old salts will point to the record books, and the record books point back: USS Dwight D. Eisenhower spent 254 days deployed off Iran during the 1980 hostage crisis at what sailors called Gonzo Station, and Ike again set the modern mark in 2020 with 206 consecutive days at sea when the pandemic closed every port in the world. The Lincoln's crew is standing the same kind of watch right now, and they have our respect.
Here's what's different, and your founder has opinions. Today's sailors are somehow getting videos off the ship. On my deployments, communication home was a letter that took two or three weeks each way and never said where we were. If you were flush, you bought a ten-minute satellite phone card. And if you really needed to hear a voice, there was the HF radio patch from the helo, where a military radio station relayed the call and you both had to say OVER when you finished talking. Try telling someone you miss them when a radio operator is in the middle of the conversation. You learned to mean every word, over.
The lesson from 272 days isn't about hardship for its own sake. It's that endurance is built one ordinary day at a time. Those sailors don't get to skip the days they don't feel like it. Neither does anybody who ever built anything.
The Watch on Practical: Training Through a Heat Dome
Oklahoma is deep in a stretch of 100-plus degree days, so here is the honest guidance. Heat illness is not a toughness test, it's physics. Train early or train indoors, because between 1500 and 1900 the garage can run hotter than outside. Hydrate before you're thirsty, and if you're sweating hard for an hour, water plus electrolytes beats water alone. Cut volume before you cut movement: a shorter session in brutal heat still beats zero. And know the warning signs: dizziness, nausea, goosebumps in the heat, and confusion mean stop, cool, hydrate, and get help if it doesn't clear.
One more angle worth knowing: research suggests regular sauna use can improve how the body handles heat stress over time, an adaptation athletes call heat acclimation. That research has caveats and a sauna session is not a substitute for common sense in a heat wave, so talk with your doctor and respect the thermometer either way.
Featured from the Store: Body-Solid Powerline PFT100 Functional Trainer
If the heat has you moving your training indoors, the Body-Solid Powerline PFT100 Functional Trainer is the compact way to bring cable training home: dual weight stacks, adjustable pulleys, and every press, pull, row, and fly you can name, in a footprint that fits a spare room or the cool corner of the garage. Built by Body-Solid, one of the most established names in strength equipment. From $1,595 with free shipping in the lower 48, and like everything we sell, the spec sheet is on the listing because a real decision deserves the documents.
The All Clear Galley: Midrats Overnight Oats
Midrats is Navy shorthand for midnight rations, the meal the galley put out for sailors coming off or going on the mid watch. It was rarely pretty, usually leftovers and sliders, but at 2330 it was the best food on Earth. Our version is built the night before, just like the name says, and it's ready when you are: no cooking, no heat, about 35 grams of protein.
Stores aboard: half a cup of old fashioned oats; one scoop vanilla protein; 1 tablespoon chia seeds; three quarters of a cup of milk; a big spoon of Greek yogurt; a drizzle of honey. For the top: berries and a spoon of peanut butter.
Chart the course: In a jar, combine the oats, protein, chia, milk, yogurt, and honey. Stir, lid it, and rack it in the fridge overnight. Come morning, top with berries and peanut butter. Make three jars on Sunday and breakfast is squared away through the heat wave.
Fair winds and good chow.
Sources
- USS Abraham Lincoln deployment length, extensions, and conditions: CNN Politics (cnn.com, August 2026); Time (time.com, August 2026).
- USS Dwight D. Eisenhower records: U.S. Navy / DVIDS, "With 161 Days Consecutively Operating At Sea, Dwight D. Eisenhower and San Jacinto Break U.S. Navy Record" (2020); Gonzo Station, 1980 Iran hostage crisis deployments.
- Heat safety guidance: general public-health recommendations (CDC heat illness guidance). Sauna heat-acclimation research is early and largely observational.
This Dispatch is general information, not medical advice. Talk with a qualified healthcare provider before starting sauna use or a new training or nutrition program.