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Just today I was having some fond memories of field days while I was contemplating cleaning my house. For those of you unfamiliar with the term ‘field day‘ it is code for exhaustive all day detail oriented cleaning. The term itself does not mean cleaning day. I just think that cleaning days were called field days to put some positive spin on it. Kind of like the time I worked at a wilderness therapy camp for at risk youth and we labeled the baking soda as “Yummy Toothpaste”. Anybody with children will recognize this tactic.

Anyway, field days were actually awesome. From boot camp on up to the time I spent on the sub, field days also meant a change of routine and escape from other responsibilities. This is because cleaning was now our number one priority at exclusion of all else. We were expected to find the most remote corners of our spaces and clean them with a toothpicks fineness in detail.

In boot camp, this did not make much difference. We could be found or seen anywhere because there were no hidden spaces. On the boat this made all the difference in the world. Sometimes we would have to fight for a good spot to clean. We could twist our bodies through all sorts of pipes and infrastructure forming ourselves into pretzels where we could fall asleep for almost half of the day.

Field days included all personnel. From the captain down to the newest recruits. Everybody was to be cleaning, minus those needed to operate the boat and drive the boat while we were at sea. This generally meant that clean-up would be completed after the first hour. Leaving the rest of the work day to focus on deep cleaning and detail work. Detail work meant for me to study the backs of my eyelids.

I don’t know if my shipmates were excited about field days like I was, but I always welcomed these times.