Beginnings
Great Lakes has been transforming civilians into Sailors for more than 90 years. From its founding in 1911, Naval Station Great Lakes has maintained its position as the Navy’s largest training facility. From World War I through the present, Great Lakes has trained and sent to the fleet more than three and a half million new Sailors.

Why the Midwest?
After the Spanish-American War, the Midwest absorbed an increasingly large share of the nation’s population and Washington planners realized that it made good sense to locate a training center in the middle of the geographic area that contributed 43 percent of the Navy’s recruits. Navy boards investigated 37 sites around Lake Michigan. Largely through the efforts of congressman George Edmond Foss, representative from the local congressional district and chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs from 1900 to 1911, the decision was made to locate the center here. Foss has been called “The Father of Great Lakes” for his efforts, and today, North Chicago’s Foss Park, which is immediately north of the base, bears his name.

Still, despite Foss’ hard work and the backing of the citizens of the Chicago area, the Navy almost decided not to move into the Midwest. Congress had appropriated limited funds to purchase the 172 acres, but the asking price of $1,000 per acre seemed too high. If the Merchants Club of Chicago and its chairman, Graeme Stewart, hadn’t come to the rescue, raising $175,000 and purchasing the land for the Navy, Naval Station Great Lakes would never have become a reality—at least not at its present location. Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill authorizing the construction of the station and directed the Navy to make Great Lakes the biggest and the best Naval Training Station in the world.

Rear Admiral Albert A. Ross raised the Zag on the site July 1, 1905, and took possession of the land for the government. He was the station’s first commander and Ross Field and Ross Auditorium on Mainside are named in his honor.

Six years later, in 1911, the station received its first trainee, Seaman Recruit Joseph W. Gregg. A small park at the Recruit Training Command today bears his name. Gregg is buried in the cemetery located near the Naval Hospital. President William H. Taft dedicated the station on October 28, 1911. The Waukegan Daily Sun welcomed this new addition to the North Shore area, saying: “Where scholarly attainment is the aim of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, which trains the future rear admirals of the Fleet, at the North Chicago school, which has been seven years in the building, the plan is to take the rank and file, teach it to swing and sleep in a hammock; how to pack a sailor’s bag; how to wash, mend and care for a sailor’s clothes; how to handle boats under sails and oars; and, generally speaking, to teach a land lubber sea etiquette.”

Milestones
It’s difficult to capture the history and flavor of an establishment as diverse as Naval Station Great Lakes in a few paragraphs, but mentioning a few major accomplishments may help. Edward Arpee, who has written a history of the base, expresses his amazement that the new station was able to handle the huge influx of new Sailors that poured through the gates at the outbreak of World War I. There were only about three dozen permanent buildings at that time, some of which are still in use around Ross Field and Camp Barry. Building Four became a barracks, where cots were set up under hammocks to double capacity. In Camp Paul Jones, brand new Sailors slopped around in ankle deep mud and slept in small tents with three small cots per tent. More than 100,000 men trained at Great Lakes during the First World War. They fought the enemy’s undersea raiders and faced the mighty German battleships. They helped convoy more than a million soldiers to Europe and back. A few went into the interior of the European continent manning giant naval guns mounted on railroad flat cars. Many of these gunners were trained on gun mounts located on the present lake shore recreational area.

Music
If the number of trainees during those years seems huge, then the number of musicians who played here at that time, under then Lt. John Philip Sousa is equally amazing. Sousa left his civilian concert band to train musicians at Great Lakes. He created 14 regimental bands numbering a total of 1,500 members, and on several occasions all 1,500 played together on Ross Field.

Civilians from up and down the lake shore would visit the base on weekends to enjoy the music and witness the Sousa-inspired spectacles. Crowds of 20 to 30,000 were not uncommon.

Seabees
Construction Battalion Unit 401 also traces its origins to an early Great Lakes unit. Captain Walter H. Allend, public works officer during World War I, formed the “Fighting Tradesmen” composed of enlisted sailors who were experienced in the building trades. They built up the station during the day and trained by night.

Service School
At the beginning of World War I there were just three schools at the station: Signal/Radio School, Hospital Corps School, and Musicians School. At the close of fighting there were 17, and five of them were aviation schools. In fact, at that time, Great Lakes was probably the world’s largest aviation training facility. Funds were scarce and early Great Lakes aviators often purchased their own planes. For practice, they would fly the mail route from Chicago to Great Lakes. Captain William Moffett built the aviation program here, and after the war he became the first Chief of Naval Aeronautics. Today, one of the Recruit Training Command camps bears his name.

Sports
For many years Great Lakes’ athletic teams played an intercollegiate schedule. The station football team was national champion in 1918, defeating a Marine Corps team in the Rose Bowl. During World War II, the football team played an intercollegiate schedule, even defeating a powerful team from the University of Notre Dame in 1943. The baseball team was equally impressive behind the pitching of Hall of Famer Bob Feller. Intramural competition became the order of the day in the 1950s, but for more than four decades Great Lakes athletic teams played tough schedules and logged winning seasons. Many of the greatest names in sports started their careers at Great Lakes.

Equality Pioneering
Great Lakes was a pioneer in racial integration of the Navy. In mid-1942, the Navy began accepting African-American enlistments for general service. Recruits received initial training at Camp Robert Smalls, a part of the Naval Training Station at Great Lakes, Ill. Many men went on to specialized training here and at other bases in the United States. Doreston Carman, Jr. reported as the first black for training in a general rating. In February 1944, the Navy commissioned its first African-American officers. This long-hoped for action represented a major step forward in the status of African-Americans in the Navy. The twelve commissioned officers, and a warrant officer who received his rank at the same time, came to be known as the “Golden Thirteen.” During the summer of 1987, the present Recruit In-Processing Center was dedicated in their honor with the eight surviving members of the “Golden Thirteen” in attendance. In 1994, the seven surviving members returned to participate in an emotional observation of the 50th anniversary of their commissioning.

The level of training ebbed and flowed through World War II and Korea. In fact, Great Lakes closed down for a few years during the depression, the buildings fell into disrepair and the only maintenance conducted at that time was mowing the grass on Ross Field. Since the Korean War, however, Great Lakes’ training requirements have remained at a high peacetime level.

Great Lakes Today
Too much history can, unfortunately, create the misconception that Great Lakes’ best days are in the past. Nothing could be further from the truth. The current Recruit Training Command, for instance, is undergoing a dramatic recapitalization program that will create a premiere training-centric environment that will be unmatched.

The facilities for technical training have not stood stagnant either. A Gas Turbine Hot Plant and a “hot plant” for diesel training, both fully functional replicas of ship’s engineering plants, offer the latest in hands-on engineering qualifications for Sailors entering or returning to ships in the fleet. Also, a state-of-the-art Damage Control School has been completed in recent years.

Millions of dollars continue to be spent on modern barracks, dining facilities, classrooms and office buildings. Fifteen service schools are sited at Great Lakes. All Navy recruits are now trained here, both men and women. Great Lakes is truly a place of challenge and excitement.