US Naval Training Center - Anchor Yearbook (San Diego, CA)

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HI TGRY T HE NAVAL TRAINING CENTER, San Diego, had its inception in 1916 when Mr. William Kettner, Congressman from the Eleventh Congressional District of California and spokesman for the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, interested the Honorable Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, in estab- lishing a naval training activity on the shores of San Diego Bay. Due to the Nation's entry into World War I, further development of this plan was postponed until 1919, when Congress authorized acceptance by the Navy of the present site of the Training Center. The original grant consisted of 135 acres of highland donated by the San Diego Cham- ber of Commerce and 142 acres of tideland given by the City of San Diego. Construction work began in 1921, and on 1 June 1923 the U.S. Naval Training Station, San Diego, was placed in commission under the command of Captain Clater Rear AdmiralJDavid F. Sellers, U.S. Navy. At the time of its commissioning in 1923 the station bore little resemblance to its present size or arrangement. At that time Camp Paul Jones housed the entire popula- tion of the station and the maximum recruit strength was l,500. The period of recruit training was then sixteen weeks.The shore line of San Diego Bay extended consider- ably further inland than at present, and the land now oc- cupied by Preble Field, the North Athletic Area and Camp Farragut was entirely under water. The recruit parade ground was located on the present site ofthe Public Works garage. During the 1920's the Recruit Receiving and Outgoing Units were housed in the Detention Unit, known as Camp Ingram, which consisted of a group of walled tents adjacent to the south boundary of Camp Paul Jones. Until Camp Lawrence was completed in 1936, re- cruits spent their first three weeks of training under canvas in this Detention Unit. In 1939 a construction program was commenced which within three years was to increase the capacity of the station four-fold. This expansion went hand in glove with a large scale program of harbor improvements by means of which the channel and anchorages in San Diego Bay were deepened and 130 acres of filled land were add- ed tothe eastern boundaries of the station. By 1941 Camp Luce had been completed, and the construction of Camps Mahan, Decatur, and Farragut was already well under way when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Virtually all this construction work was completed by September, 1942, when the capacity ofthe station had reached it war- time peak of 33,000 men, 25,000 of whom were recruits. The period of recruit training during World War II varied between three weeks and seven weeks. In April, 1944, the Secretary of the Navy changed the status of the Training Station to that of a group command and redesignated it the U. S. Naval Training Center, San Diego. Under the Center Commander were established three subordinate commands: The Recruit Training Com- mand,The Service School Command and the Administra- tive Command. The years immediately following World War II saw a considerable reduction in population ofthe Training Cen- ter despite a post-war expansion of the Service Schools, and by the end of 1949 the population of the Center had dropped to a twenty-year low of 5,800 men. Six months later,when the Communists invaded the Republic of Korea, an immediate expansion of all Naval training activities took place and by September of 1950 the Center was again operating at nearly full capacity. During the early months of the Korean conflict it be- came apparent that the demand for trained personnel in

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g. 'i P u. s. NAVAL TRAINING CEISEJER F o of o Q Son Diego Coll ornlcl 3 I 9 l U l D Q OUNTLESS GENERATIONS of seafaring men ' have come to regard the anchor as a symbol of . their profession and a mark of security to the ships on .J which they serve. By the Romans the anchor was re- 4 garded as a symbol of wealth and commerce, while the Greeks gave to it the significance of hope and steadiness, ' a meaning that persists in religion and heraldry today. , . The symbolism of the Greeks was carried on by the early Christians with a meaning of steadfastness, hope and salvation. Here, too, in recruit training, the anchor has special significance, not only as the symbol of the recruit's new life and surroundings but also as the steadfast symbol of the security in his new career that his recruit training will give him. In the pages that follow, the daily life ofa recruit is traced from his initial arrival at the Naval Training Center until his graduation. TIIE AKCIIICJE

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continued the rapidly growing Pacific Fleet would require further expansion of this training center. Accordingly steps were taken by the Navy Department to reactivate Camp Elliott, formerly a World War II Marine Corps training camp which is located ten miles north of San Diego on Kearny Mesa. On l5 January l95l Camp Elliott was placed in commission as Elliott Annex of the Naval Training Cen- ter forthe purpose of conducting the primary phases of re- cruit training. In March, l953, in line with the planned re- duction in size of the Navy, training at Elliott Annex was discontinued and it was placed in an inactive status. Dur- ing its two years of operation, over l50,000 recruits re- ceived training there. Late in 1952 projects were approved to convert some recruit barracks into classrooms and to extend training facilities by construction of a permanent recruit camp on the undeveloped Training Center land lying to the south and east of the estuary. The six converted barracks went into service as recruit classrooms in April, l953, and con- struction work onthe new camp was completed in l955. In late I964 a new school to train recruits in the vital function of fire-fighting was opened at Carroll Canyon, some 15 miles north east of San Diego. With the com- pletion ofthis project the Naval Training Center filled out to its present boundaries of 535 acres. In late I965, the demand for trained Navy men to man the additional ships and overseas billets, required to meet the Vietnam crisis, brought the on-board population to a record of over 18,000 recruits, the highest since Korea. At the same time, a military construction program got under- way with the foundation of a new 8,000-man mess hall being laid adjacent to Bainbridge Court. ln addition, an ambitious five-year program was formalized for the con- struction of modern barracks, TV classrooms and ad- ministration facilities. The face lifting of the Recruit Training Command is expected to be completed by the early l970's. In the furtherance of its mission of supplying trained naval personnel to the fleets and ships of the United States Navy, each of the three subordinate commands of the '. J ji . -. 5. 5 I wwf- i.,.., ...Wg K