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

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fi? '- W J -mf' ,A N' n rf ,. Q- . 125 2,2 CAPTAIN MARK M. GANTAR Commanding Officer, U. S. Naval Trainin E515 'n 'c' '-- Q Rs' 4 x 'R gvrfmugn -rx g Center

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the world and distributes them to hometown newspapers: and 31 Navy Medical Research Unit No. 4, which conducts research into the cause, cure, and control of respiratory diseases. Waves have been stationed at Great Lakes since the Navy volunteer women's organization was established in 1942. A Wave recruit training school was located here from 1948 to 1951. In addition to filling essential iobs at Great Lakes, Waves also attended 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 1 .Iuly 1911-six years to the day after construction 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 training here during World War I. Great Lakes' population dropped sharply during the years between wars, but population and construction began a rapid increase after President Roosevelt proclaimed a national emergency on 9 September 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 Y'- 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 Il, Great Lakes consisted of approximately 1,000 buildings. Since then much new construction has been accomplished in a continuing modernization program. New barracks, a new mess hall and other modern buildings are replacing the World War II wooden construction. In keeping geared to modern methods, the Recruit Training Command has installed a closed circuit tele- vision channel in the classrooms of its up-to-date class- room building. With sets in each room 2400 men can be taught at once using only one cameraman and one instructor-and it has been found that this method of instruction is far more efficient than the older methods. From its earliest beginnings the base on the shore of Lake Michigan-the Great Lakes Naval Training Center -has been a maior bastion in the Navy's ever-continu- ing progress forward in training. Today, as in the past, it maintains its position as both the largest center for the training of recruits and as a maior center of advanced technical training. vb .x,. fa . wr ri gil

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OMMANDER DALE P. HELMER C Executive Officer, Recruit Training Command H1 A CAPTAIN JAMES R. COLLIER Commanding Officer, Recruit Training Command ' Ti 5-4 -. E g ,.., in-v .4 A -' Q , .fduflqfn p