US Navy Recruit Training Command - Keel Yearbook (Great Lakes, IL)

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L : .,v W H wx , 5 1 kv V M . : ny P.-1' W R 4 C CAPTAIN J. B. McLEAN, U. S. NAVY Commander, Naval Training Center 0 !.1....'-,O-r V1 gf? ' REAR ADMIRAL E. P. FORRESTEL U. S. NAVY Commandanf, Ninth Naval Disfrici' f Ui l .1 1'1 'E a-if ff .VX

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- a... -..D Hi 'ti . . 1. .41 . Ky. P A throughout the Midwest, as well as ships of the fleet, obtain equipment through the enlarged Naval Supply Depot. In addition, a large Electronic Supply Oiiice at Great Lakes controls the procurement and distribution of repair parts required :for the maintenance of electronic equipment at shore stations and in Navy ships. Great Lakes also is the headquarters of the Ninth Naval District-the largest Naval district in the nation, encom- passing 13 midwestern states. The Commandant of the Ninth Naval District directs the hundreds of Naval ac- tivities in this land-locked area. Included among these activities is administration of the large Naval Reserve program in the Midwest, where civilians who are Naval Reservists receive practical instruction in weekly drills at 72 training centers. They also participate in annual cruises aboard ships of the Great Lakes training squad- ron. Other activities at Great Lakes have all-Navy functions. These include: CID the Naval Examining Center, which prepares and processes rating examinations for the en- tire Navyg C21 Fleet Home Town News Center, which receives news stories and photographs of Naval personnel from all parts of the world and distributes them to home- town newspapers, and C33 Navy Medical Research Unit No. 4, which conducts research into the cause, cure, and control of respiratory diseases. Waves have heen stationed at Great Lakes since the Navy volunteer women s organization was established in 1942. A Wave recruit training school was located here from 1943 to 1951. In addition to filling essential jobs at Great Lakes, Waves also attend some of the specialty schools here. Great Lakes' history dates back to 1904, when a board appointed by the President selected the site of the Naval Training Center from among 37 locations on the Great Lakes. The Merchants, Club of Chicago raised the funds to purchase the property, and the land was presented to the Government as a gift from the people of Chicago. On July 1, 1911-six years to the day after construc- tion began-Great Lakes was commissioned. It consisted of 39 buildings, with a capacity of 1,500 men. During World War I, the training center was expanded to 775 buildings with a capacity of almost 50,000 trainees. More than 125,000 men received their first Navy train- ing here during World War I. Great Lakes' population dropped sharply during the years hetween wars, but population and construction be- gan a rapid increase after President Roosevelt pro- claimed a national emergency on September 9, 1939. Pearl Harbor threw the expansion program into high gear, with 13,000 civilians working in shifts, seven days a week, to build additional barracks, mess halls, and training facilities. A total of 675 buildings had been erected by the end of 1942, and in 1944 the population reached a peak of more than 100,000. At the end of World War II, Great Lakes consisted of approximately 1,000 buildings. Since then, these facil- ities have been utilized in the continued training of recruits and in Great Lakes' expansion as an important advanced school center for the Navy.

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I ' f .iq I mx. A N L A S 7 ix, COMMANDER R. E. CUTTS, U. S. NAVY Executive Officer, Recruit Training Command ' e,2 -, if Ca' 'Nw' CAPTAIN CHARLES B. JACKSON, .IR U. S. NAVY Commanding Officer, Recruit Training Command