History

• The Great Lakes Naval Training Center opened in 1911 following an earlier act by President Theodore Roosevelt authorizing the facility. The site was chosen to centralize training and utilize nearby Lake Michigan. Heavy lobbying by Illinois and Chicago businessmen and lawmakers also influenced the decision. Opening just a few years shy of the start of World War I, the base trained about 100,000 men during that conflict.
  
  

Size

• The center, which is commanded by a one-star admiral, sits on about 1,628 acres and includes more than 1,150 buildings. It has its own medical facilities as well as police and fire departments. Recruits are assigned to various 1,000-bed barracks and eat their meals at the base's various galleys. It is the third-largest base in the Navy and the largest training center in the Navy.
  
  

Function

• The goal of the center is to mold civilian recruits into sailors. Young men and women who arrive are assigned to divisions and go through eight weeks of intense classroom instruction and physical fitness training. Recruits learn military drills, weapons training, water survival and firefighting.
  
  

Firsts

• For most of its history, the U.S. Navy had no African-American commissioned officers. That changed during World War II in 1944 when a group of black sailors entered the officer candidate school. The cadre that graduated became known as the "Golden Thirteen" and went on to serve the country.
  Rear Admiral Mack Gaston, in 1992, became the first African-American commander of the base, and in 1994 the center began training women for the first time.
  
  

Fun Fact

• Now known as "The March King," bandleader John Phillip Sousa was a musician at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, where he was called Lt. Sousa. During the training center's early years, he formed 14 regimental bands with 1,500 members to perform at Naval and other events.