Fall Field Day '04: Things kicked off with a bang for this year’s Field Day before anyone had even arrived. Ron Cummings, who commanded a Fletcher-class tin can back in the day, passed through town in August and heard about the Field Day from some of our volunteers. Unfortunately, the dates coincided with that of his ship’s reunion and so he was unable to attend. Nevertheless, he mailed in a contribution of $150 to help defer expenses for the event!
Sixteen people joined us this year, with most of them being repeat offenders. We can’t figure out if they keep coming back for the ship or for the food prepared by Ben and Jo Ann Fernandez (DDG16 and FFG1074), but we
The Fall Field Day '04 crew gathers at the
starboard quad 40mm for a photo.
Photo courtesy of John Ellsworth.
suspect it’s the food. Ben and Jo Ann have been cooking for the Field Days for so long that Jo Ann’s co-workers in the Department of Transportation & Development in New Orleans donated a few food items for the crew’s enjoyment. Ben and Jo Ann’s son—also Ben, aka “Little Ben”—once again allowed his house to be transformed into the Kitchen Arena of Iron Chef fame.
Of course, what is a field day without paintwork? Dan Outman and his son Kenny (age 10) painted the 20mm guns and spare ammunition lockers on the fantail. Additionally, they teamed up with Clay Burris (age 12) and his friend, Dillon George (age 11), in painting a major portion of our helmets. Clay and Dillon also worked on the snaking and removed deteriorated portions along the fantail so the shipboard staff could replace them the following week.
Red Marron (DD666) cleaned and painted our barbershop. Jim Delap (DD729) removed our rotted canvas covers from the flag bags on the signal bridge and gave everything a thorough cleaning. Tom Andreason (DD679) did a bit of plumbing work on one of the sinks in the aft head with George Gordin (DD661) before joining Max Igleheart (BB40) and Jim on removing rotted woodwork from the gunwale of the starboard whaleboat. It looked like the set of “This Old House” for a while with hammer and grinders and wood chisels all over the place and the smell of sawdust in the air. But by the end of the weekend, the project was ready for the next phase––fabrication and replacement of the gunwale.
John Ellsworth (DD591) teamed up with Carl Burris (DD677) and policeman Mike McGee to replace that annoying pane of glass on the Mk-37 director that caused them such heartache at the end of the last field day. Mike then scaled the mast to remove the motor for the air search radar, much to the delight of the ABNER READ shipmates who were aboard for a reunion. Mac Mackensen (DD699) provided instruction and guidance from the flying bridge. A quick trip by Bob Holt across town secured the proper replacement and up the pole Mike went again. The result was a radar antenna now rotating that had not moved in three years. With a half hour to kill before dinner, Mike—ever the Energizer Bunny—kept his harness on, hopped the railing, and primed the scuppers on the fantail in preparation for painting.
George, meantime, had moved belowdecks to CIC where shipmate Mack Bradley (DD661) was at work. They cinched down the plotting arm, cleaned display boards, cleaned the surface plot and air plot, and attempted to light the compass rose but couldn’t locate power to run to it. Carl moved from the fire control director to Radio Central and proceeded to replace our broken MP3 player, cleaning up a rat’s nest of speaker wires and giving the space a thorough wipedown. Harry Howard (DD210), two decks below in the Engineering Office, was organizing blueprints for easier access by our weekly volunteers.
In the aft fireroom, Richard Ammon (DD661) continued stenciling steam pipes and valves. Clay and Dillon joined him and taped off the boiler face plates that had not yet been painted. Clay then teamed with Tim NesSmith to paint one of the face plates before things wrapped up on Saturday.