The phrase every sailor hates to see listed on the POD. When things are running smoothly on board the ship and sailors are in a generally good mood a field day is thrown in to mess things up. This normally happens on a Saturday.

A field day is pretty much a top down, bow to stern cleaning of the entire ship. Every person not on watch is required to turn two and get to cleaning. The smallest little things are cleaned and made to look good.

We never did have a ship wide field day while I was onboard, but I have heard stories of major field days that lasted 2 or 3 days on some ships. We of course did have field days during boot camp and then again in A-school.


Some ships have even gone through the trouble to have patches and t-shirts made to commemorate a special field day, or Clean-Ex.