Many ex-sailors have never been on a "Field Day" aboard one of the museum/memorial ships around the United States. Field days are a time, weekend/week/day, where volunteers work aboard the ships doing what they can to maintain, preserve and restore them. Volunteers are the backbone of every historic ship. Some of the ships allow us to live, eat, shower on the ship, making it easy to put in a full work day. There is always a leader or leaders to plan the work, give out the jobs and have necessary material on hand to do the job. Good cooks are critical to success also.
In conjunction with field days are "Strip Ship Trips". Once again these are mainly volunteers under the umbrella of the parent organization on sanctioned trips to Navy yards, scrapyards and MARAD anchorages. The main purpose of these trips is to provide material of any kind to keep the historic ship going, looking great and restored properly. Strip crews will take anything that is on a need list from machinery, communications, radio gear, tables, chairs, office material, steel, copper pipe, lighting, bunks, scuttlebutts, furniture, anything.
The field days are successful due to proper planning and ready supplies. The strip ship material is readily used up in assigned spaces undergoing restoration or repair.
We sincerely encourage you to consider volunteering any amount of time aboard one of the historic ships. They need YOU, everyone has something to contribute. We hope this series of photos shows what goes on, how material is used and the friendliness of the volunteer personnel. 
All of the photos in this section are in conjunction with or onboard the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (DD-850) berthed at Fall River, Mass. Other ships will follow.
Ed Zajkowski - USS Keppler DD-765

One of our volunteers believes so much in the ship, he got married at the Cove Click on the links below to view the 410 images included in this special feature    View the Field Day Crews over the years Views of the Restoration work aboard the USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Highlight photos of the Strip Trips