great lakes

• Birthplace of Navy Boot Camp: Great Lakes Naval Station, located near North Chicago, Illinois, is the only boot camp for the United States Navy, training over 40,000 recruits annually since 1911. • World War I Expansion: During WWI, Great Lakes rapidly expanded—growing from about 39 buildings to over 775, and training more than 125,000 sailors by war’s end. • Historic Integration: Great Lakes was the first US Navy installation to train African American sailors, starting in 1942 during World War II. • “Bluejackets” and the USS Recruit: The base features a landlocked training ship, USS Recruit (“The Bluejacket”), constructed in 1949 and used for hands-on seamanship training. • Women in Uniform: The first female recruits began training at Great Lakes in 1948, following the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act. • Historic Preservation: The Great Lakes Naval Station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with many original buildings still in use. • Celebrity Graduates: Many famous Americans, including actor Tony Curtis and baseball legend Yogi Berra, completed their Navy training at Great Lakes. • Training Innovations: The base pioneered realistic firefighting and damage control training, which set new standards for the Navy. • World War II Massive Throughput: At its World War II peak, the base graduated over 1,000 sailors per day, with more than one million passing through during the war. • Modernization: The Recruit Training Command underwent a $763 million modernization program in the early 2000s, adding state-of-the-art facilities and technology for today’s sailors.