That was a sampling of Dan Kātze’s (DD734) take on a typical Field Day diary entry. But do not worry about Don Shaeffer (LST758). Their neighbor Hank Taddeucci (DD661) assures us that he is fine.

The Fall Field Day dawned a week earlier than normal this year, but that did not deter the twenty-two volunteers who signed up from eleven different states. Occurring just six weeks after Hurricane Gustav, our high priority projects were the repairs of any leftover damages.

Since meeting up with him in Galveston in June ’07 at the christening of the third KIDD (DDG100), Hank Taddeucci had been cajolling fellow boatswain’s mate Kraig Maxwell to come to Baton Rouge for a field day. Kraig served aboard the second KIDD (DDG993). So when Hank, Kraig, and Clint Williams (WLM562)—also a boatswain—finally joined forces in Baton Rouge, they formed a trifecta of line and canvas work prowess. Rev. Mark Carpenter teamed up with Kraig to fabricate and weld cross-braces into place on the framework for our new quarterdeck awning. The bosuns then recruited a work force made up of Dan, Don, and Mac Mackensen (DD699) to help them in snaking the line to lash the canvas in place.

With the awning taken care of, George Seal (DD528) grabbed Dan, and together they mounted the brand new bloomers on the Mk-37 director atop the bridge. While they were occupied, Don and Hank snaked new lines on the halyards on the Signal Bridge. With the bloomers in place and new lines on the halyards, Dan grabbed a harness and scaled the mast to replace the bulbs in the masthead lights. Hurricane repairs continued as Hank split off from the gang to replace the lines on all of the canvas covers for the Mk-14 sights on the 20mm guns. Up above, Clint did the same for the covers on the Mk-51 sights for the quad 40mm guns before moving to repair line on our gangway banners. Once completed, the bosuns collected Dan and Don and moved shop to the museum where they replaced all of the lines and clips on every flagpole.

Max Igleheart (BB40) and Air Force vet Gerald Hancock teamed up to give the CPO’s Mess a fresh coat of paint. They apparently did such a fine job that they were assigned a little TDY (temporary duty) ashore painting four new Hall of Honor cases. Noah Randall cleaned up the Torpedo Locker before moving to his real interest, the Small Arms Locker and the M-1903 Springfield rifles. He cleaned and oiled all twenty-two of them. Afterward, he got together with Gerald, and they tracked down all of the helmets that were scattered around the ship and returned them to the appropriate storage racks and secured them. Frank Remkiewicz (DER322) polished stainless steel and cleaned dishes in the Scullery. Tom Andreasen (DD679) and Carl Burris (DD677) repaired our benches in the Messdeck. Mack Stringfield (DD651 and DD825) finally made it to a field day after several attempts. He spent the weekend cleaning and relamping the cases in the Fletcher Museum back aft as well as changing light bulbs shipwide. Jeff "Smitty" Smith (FEMA) was in town with hurricane relief and spent all day on Saturday polishing brass.

Down belowdecks, Richard Ammon (DD661), his son-in-law John Lobley, and his grandson Jonathan spent the weekend putting a top coat of paint on the primed bulkheads that Tim NesSmith had brought down to bare metal, as well as stenciling steam pipes. George Seal, meantime, aided Bob Holt in coordinating supplies, tools, and tasks and found time to work on Mount 51’s tompkin down in the Machine Shop. Russell Rosenberger served throughout the weekend in what George called "the morale officer" status.

Our galley crew expanded this year. Tim handled lunch on the opening day but quickly yielded to college chum Ben A. Fernandez that night, with a great chorus of cheers from the crew at large. Friday saw the arrival of dad, Benjamin C. Fernandez (DDG16 and FFG1074), and mom, Jo Ann, from New Orleans. Little Ben’s co-worker, Valmond Falks, and his wife, Cindy, joined in to lend a hand on Friday and Saturday. As usual, the chow was superb.