Great Lakes Naval Station

Naval Station Great Lakes

NavStaGreatLakes Seal Location of NavStaGreatLakes

Naval Station Great Lakes (NAVSTA Great Lakes) is currently (2025) the home of the United States Navy's only boot camp, located near North Chicago, in Lake County, Illinois. Important tenant commands include the Recruit Training Command, Training Support Center, and Navy Recruiting District Chicago. Naval Station Great Lakes is Illinois's largest military installation and training station in the Navy. The base has 1,153 buildings on 1,628 acres (6.59 km2) and 69 miles (111 km) of roadway providing access to the base's facilities. Within the naval service, it has several different nicknames, including "The Quarterdeck of the Navy," or the more derogatory "Great Mistakes." It is also called "second boot camp" while at Training Support Command.

The original 39 buildings, constructed between 1905 and 1911, were designed by Jarvis Hunt.

The base functions similarly to a small city, with its own fire department, Naval Security Forces (Police), and public works department.

One of the area's landmarks is Building 1, the clock tower building. Completed in 1911, it is made of red brick and features a tower above the third floor. The significant parade ground in front of the administration building .

Major tenant commands

Recruit Training Command

Wikipedia article: United States Navy Basic Training

In 1996, RTC Great Lakes became the Navy's only basic training facility. The Base Realignment and Closure Commission of 1993 resulted in the closure of 'Naval Training Center San Diego, California' and 'Naval Training Center Orlando, Florida', their associated Recruit Training Commands, and the consolidation of US Navy enlisted recruit training to Great Lakes. Approximately 40,000 recruits pass through Recruit Training Command annually, with an estimated 7,000 recruits on board the installation at any given time. RTC Great Lakes has been active for over 100 years.

Training Support Center

TSC Great Lakes is the Navy's premier technical training command. It has an annual throughput of 16,000 Sailors. TSC supports the following six learning sites:

• Surface Combat Systems Training Command (SCSTC)
• Surface Warfare Officers School Command Unit (SWOSU)
• Center for EOD and Dive (CNEODD)
• Center for Naval Leadership (CNL)
• Center for Personal Development (CPD)
• Center for Service Support (CSS)

The following rating training class A-schools are located at Naval Station Great Lakes:

• Electrician's mate (EM)
• Electronics Technician (ET)
• Fire Controlman (FC)
• Gunner's mate (GM)
• Interior Communications Electrician (IC)
• Boatswain's mate (BM)
• Operations Specialist (OS)
• Hull Maintenance Technician (HT)
• Damage Controlman (DC)
• Engineman (EN)
• Gas Turbine System Technician (Electrical) (GSE)
• Gas Turbine System Technician (Mechanical) (GSM)
• Machinery Repairman (MR)
• Quartermaster (QM)
• Machinist's mate (MM)

• Culinary Specialist (CS) A-school was also taught at TSC Great Lakes until December 10, 2010, when the school graduated its final class. The course has been consolidated with the US Army's parallel program and relocated to Fort Lee (now Fort Gregg-Adams), Virginia.
• Hospital Corpsman (HM) "A" School has been relocated from Great Lakes. The final class graduated on July 27, 2011, known as Class 11–125. The school has moved to the Medical Education and Training Campus at Fort Sam Houston, Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. This change has consolidated Air Force, Army, and Navy medical staff into a centralized location.
• Additionally, all Navy rates requiring basic electrical knowledge and troubleshooting training undergo Apprentice Technical Training (ATT) school. This includes the Mineman (MN) and Sonar Technician (Surface) (STG) rates, as well as some aviation rates before detachment to their respective school locations in San Diego, CA, and Pensacola, Florida. Boatswain's Mates complete Surface Common Core (SCC) Basic Maintenance Training, while engineering rates finish Basic Engineering Common Core (BECC).

History

Great Lakes was approved in 1904 by Theodore Roosevelt. Construction was supervised by Navy Captain Albert R. Ross. The original 39 buildings were designed by Chicago-area architect Jarvis Hunt, and Lt. George A. McKay served as the civil engineer for the construction on the 172 acres (70 ha) wilderness location. A budget of $3.5 million ‎($122 million today) was allocated for the construction. President William Howard Taft dedicated the Naval Training Station in 1911. On 3 July 1911, Joseph Gregg became the first recruit to arrive, graduating in the first class of 300. Fifty-five years later, he was buried at the Naval Station Cemetery on 5 July 1966.

Legendary bandleader and march composer John Philip Sousa was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Navy during World War I. He led the Great Lakes Naval Station Band from mid-1917 until shortly after the Armistice was implemented in November 1918. NaStaGreatLakes also had a Radio School, which included two 400 ft (120 m) towers constructed in 1915. From 1911 to 1916, around 2,000 recruits a year were trained at Great Lakes.

World War I

At the start of 1917, just prior to the United States' entry into World War I, Great Lakes was under the command of Captain William A. Moffett and had 39 permanent brick buildings, over 165 acres (67 ha), and about 1,500 sailors. By the close of the war, the number of buildings had risen to 776, covering 1,200 acres (490 ha) and housing about 45,000 sailors in training; 125,000 had been trained at Great Lakes during the war.

Interwar period

In 1923, the Naval Reserve Air Base at Great Lakes was commissioned. Recruit training slowed after the war and halted in 1933. By 1932, Great Lakes had 102 buildings on 507 acres (205 ha). A port was constructed around that time at a cost of $1 million ($23 million today).

On July 1, 1933, Great Lakes was closed and placed in a maintenance status. It reopened on July 1, 1935, after lobbying by local businessmen and the Congressional Delegation from Illinois. In 1936, aviation training was moved from Great Lakes to Naval Air Station Glenview.

On December 9, 1940, the Class A Service School opened for its first class.

World War II

On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan, and approximately 6,000 sailors were undergoing training at Great Lakes. This number increased to 68,000 within six months; by September 1942, over 100,000 sailors were training at Great Lakes. The base expanded to 1,600 acres (650 hectares) over the subsequent ten months. By mid-1943, there were more than 700 instructors at the Class A service schools.

The Navy designated Great Lakes as the site for the first African American trainees. On June 5, 1942, Doreston Luke Carmen from Galveston, Texas, was the first recruit to enter the segregated training facility at Camp Robert Smalls. In September 1942, segregated "Negro Service Schools" were established. The policy of segregation resulted in small service school classes, typically consisting of only four or five students per class. By 1944, Great Lakes began integrating training, and by mid-1945, all training had become integrated. The Golden Thirteen were commissioned in March 1944 after their training at Great Lakes.

Four million individuals served on active duty in the Navy during World War II, with over one million sailors trained at Great Lakes.

1946 to 1960

In 1948, a boot camp for WAVES (female recruits) opened at Great Lakes, graduating its first class on 5 October 1948. In 1951, female recruit training moved from Great Lakes to the United States Naval Training Center Bainbridge, Maryland.

Great Lakes hosted the Commander of the Ninth Naval District from 1945 until the District was disestablished on 30 June 1979.

In March 1954, new facilities at Great Lakes for training Gunner's Mates, Fire Controlmen, Opticalmen, and Instrumentmen were dedicated at a cost of $2.2 million ($25.8 million today). At that time, the 95,000 sq ft (8,800 m2) Gunnery School was said to have the largest all-glass facade in the world. Designed by Bruce Graham (co-designer of the former Sears Tower and John Hancock Center) of the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Gunnery School was demolished in 2012 after hands-on training transitioned to computer-based training in 2005. In 2008, an attempt was made to preserve the structure, which was described as a "Cathedral of the Cold War."

Starting in the late 1950s, new barracks, mess halls, classrooms, and staff offices at the Recruit Training Center were built for around $8 million. These facilities served the Navy until the late 1990s rebuild of the recruit training facility.

1960s and 1970s

On December 9, 1960, Great Lakes Naval Hospital (building 200H) was dedicated, replacing the original hospital, building 1H. During the Vietnam War, the hospital cared for over 11,000 patients at the 478,000 sq ft (44,400 m2), 825-bed facility. The hospital's demolition began in January 2013 after its services were transitioned off-base to the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (formerly the North Chicago VA Medical Center) in 2010.

In August 1965, facilities at Great Lakes were used as a morgue in the aftermath of the crash of United Airlines Flight 389.

In the early morning hours of 11 March 1967, Rear Admiral Howard A. Yeager, Commander of the 9th Naval District, tragically lost his life due to a fire that occurred at his quarters in Great Lakes. Admiral Yeager, along with two hospital corpsmen (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), perished while endeavoring to rescue the Admiral's wife, who was receiving medical treatment for multiple sclerosis. Unfortunately, she succumbed to her condition several days later.

On 28 September 1972, a tornado impacted two of the base housing areas at Great Lakes, resulting in injuries to eighteen individuals.

1979 riots

In 1979, violence erupted between sailors at Great Lakes and civilians in North Chicago. In June 1979, over 300 sailors armed with bricks and rocks rioted in North Chicago for at least two consecutive nights in protest after a group of civilians infiltrated the base and assaulted a sailor. Two hundred sailors reportedly climbed the fence, entering North Chicago and clashing with local police. On the first night, sixteen individuals were arrested, and five suffered injuries. Five were apprehended by police, while 16 were in the custody of Navy authorities on the second night. Additionally, six sailors and five police officers sustained injuries during the second night of riots, and a police cruiser was overturned. Sailors claimed they faced unfair treatment and harassment in the North Chicago entertainment district known as the "strip." Local officials disputed these claims. The six-block entertainment district, or "strip," was eventually placed off-limits indefinitely by the base commander.

In the aftermath of the rioting, 58 summary courts-martial were conducted; 19 sailors were found not guilty, and the base commander, Captain Robert D. Colvin, was replaced by Rear Admiral Thomas L. Malone Jr.

Days after the riots, on 28 June 1979, four were sought in connection with the robbery of the Great Lakes Naval Station branch of the Citizens Bank of Waukegan. Around $125,000 ($541,552 today) was stolen. The bank manager was abducted from his home in Zion and held captive along with several others until the automatic lock of the bank vault allowed it to be opened the next morning. No one was harmed in the robbery. Payday for the base was set for the following day.

1980s

In 1984, 34 people were arrested in a drug sting called Operation Blueboy, where investigators posed as sailors based at Great Lakes. Nineteen of those arrested were cab drivers, while others were tavern employees on the North Chicago "strip".

The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Great Lakes Naval Training Station historic district in 1986, covering 1,932 acres (7.8 km2), 43 buildings, 14 structures, and six objects.

In September 1986, a US naturalized immigrant from Pakistan shot three people, killing a senior instructor, after it became clear that he would be dropped from an electronics training program at Apprentice Technical Training in Great Lakes. He was sentenced to life in prison and received a dishonorable discharge in 1987.

1990s

The North Chicago "strip" was well known for prostitution, drugs, and crime by the early 1990s, when it became further isolated from the base after the King Drive railroad crossing was closed, cutting the city's connection to Great Lakes. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, food deliveries from off base were further restricted, continuing the area's economic decline.

Base Realignment and Closure of 1993

The 1993 Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended closing recruit training in San Diego and Orlando, making Great Lakes the sole US Navy site for recruit training. The recommendations were expected to yield a net gain of over 8,000 military and civilian jobs at Great Lakes.

Base Realignment and Closure of 2005

The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended a realignment of Great Lakes that would result in the loss of around 2,000 jobs. At the time, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich pledged to retain as many jobs as possible. The Naval Station Great Lakes and the Recruit Training / Boot Camp portion were not slated for closing. Almost $800 million had been invested in building new barracks ("ships"), Battle Stations 21, as well as numerous upgrades around the base, including a non-denominational chapel and a reception center for civilian families. It is the only boot camp facility of the United States Navy. Approximately 40,000 recruits pass through RTC annually, with up to 7,000 enrolled at the installation at any time.

Geographically, the station separates the affluent North Shore from the more industrial Waukegan/North Chicago area, the latter now announcing numerous redevelopments across their span for strip malls and New Urban residency communities.

A Personal Note from Robin

I was assigned to the Recruit Training Command (RTC) for "Boot Camp" in 1957. Upon graduation, I was assigned to "Electricity and Electronics Preparation School" (E&EPrep), Electronics Technician Class 'A', and several 'C' Schools.

External links

More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Great_Lakes_Naval_Station ]

Jump to: Main Page • Micropedia • Macropedia • Icons • Sexology • Time Line • History • Life Lessons • Links • Help
Chat rooms • What links here • Copyright info • Contact information • Category:Root