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Show A City in Itself, Great Lakes Naval Training Center Is Largest of Its Kind in the World Thousands of Youths Are Trained There Each Day. From farms, factories, offices of-fices and classrooms of the great Midwest plains area, thousands of men today are on the march. Since that fateful Sunday of December 7 when Japanese bombs rained on Pearl Harbor, Har-bor, they have been heading toward the naval training station, sta-tion, Great Lakes, 111., bent on becoming seagoing fighters fight-ers with Uncle Sam's fleet. At this great naval training base, 40 miles north of Chicago on Lake Michigan, far from salt water, the navy is undertaking the huge task of transforming "land-lubbers" into hard-hitting men of the greatest fleet in the world. Greatest of all naval training centers cen-ters in the world during World War I, the station again bears that reputation. repu-tation. In the near future, 11 camps, each bearing the name of a navy hero, will provide training and living liv-ing quarters for men on the station. These camps will be Barry, Bron-son, Bron-son, Luce, Paul Jones, Perry, Dewey, Dew-ey, Lawrence, Porter, Moffet, Morrow Mor-row and Mclntire, the latter being the hospital area of the station. Supplying approximately 35 per cent of the enlisted personnel of the fleet, Great Lakes is the headquarters headquar-ters of the Ninth naval district. The district includes 13 midwestern states: North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Ne-braska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Ken-tucky, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. Commandant of the district and commanding officer of the station is Rear Adm. John Downes. Construction of the original training train-ing station at Great Lakes was authorized au-thorized by an act of congress in April, 1904. Seven years later, President Pres-ident William Howard Taft officially official-ly opened the station on October 28, 1911. It consisted of 33 buildings located on a 167-acre tract of land and it housed 1,400 men. With the outbreak of war in 1917, 900 buildings build-ings were constructed. More than 125,000 men were trained for the fleet during the first world conflict. The buildings erected during World War I were temporary structures struc-tures and were dismantled after the signing of the Armistice. Today other oth-er temporary structures are being provided to handle the daily influx of recruits in this new war. A Self-Sufflcient Unit. Extensive facilities of the station make it a self-sufficient unit. There are offices, barracks, mess halls, classrooms, drill halls, gymnasiums, store houses and large hospitals. The station has its own barber shops, hostess house, post office, tailor shop, laundry and shoe shop. There are three swimming pools and ten regulation ABC bowling alleys. But more important than the buildings and facilities are the men thousands of Americans ranging from beardless youths to men in their forties who were Bluejackets in 1917 and 1918. Besides being a perfect per-fect physical specimen, the Bluejacket Blue-jacket of 1942 is A-l in inteligence, courage and patriotism. Anxiously he learns the seafaring lessons being be-ing taught by veterans of the fleet. Expectantly he awaits the day when he will graduate from the ranks of a recruit to that of a full-fledged sailor. Requirements of Recruits. Fundamentally, a recruit must be between the ages of 17 and 50 and ' -..v- .i-piwOTWlT' T 1 ; -s&. H 'I' I . m.aL.h Usi Color guard at Great Lakes naval training station. must be no shorter than five feet three inches and no taller than six feet four inches. But would-be sailors sail-ors who answer this general description descrip-tion are subjected to a rigid and thorough physical and dental examination exami-nation upon arrival at the station, before they are finally accepted. Primary examinations are given at various recruiting stations and sometimes physical defects are overlooked, because many of the tests required are not available at outlying recruiting centers. Statistics Statis-tics show that between 50 and 60 per cent of applicants applying at recruiting re-cruiting stations are rejected for physical or mental defects, or other conditions. The physical examination at Great Lakes is of a routine but thorough nature, conducted by medical offi-,cers offi-,cers who are specialists in the various va-rious fields of medicine. The examination exam-ination includes surgical, orthopedic, orthoped-ic, psychiatric, psychological, X-ray, and eye, ear, nose and throat examinations, exam-inations, the results of which determine deter-mine a man's physical fitness for the service. Each man is subjected to a photo-fluoroscopic photo-fluoroscopic examination of his chest and to the various blood and laboratory labora-tory tests. He is also immunized for smallpox, typhoid, yellow fever and tetanus. In some cases where there is doubt as to the physical or mental fitness of an individual, he is sent to the U. S. Naval hospital here for a period of observation and study. After this period, if the individual in-dividual is found to be physically and mentally qualified, he is outfitted outfit-ted and takes his place in recruit training. In cases where minor surgical conditions are discovered, the individuals indi-viduals are sent to the naval hospital, hos-pital, where the conditions are corrected cor-rected before the recruit is accepted for naval service. Men From AH Walks of Life. The navy is a great leveler. When contingents of recruits pour into the naval training station to begin be-gin "boot" training, they present a colorful picture in contrast but not for long. There are professional men and highly paid factory workers, men in smartly tailored suits, farm boys in overalls, cow hands from the West in high-heeled boots and sombreros, prosperous men and 'poor men, men with long hair, men with short hair a cross-section of America. After recruits have undergone physical and dental examinations to determine their fitness for naval service, the "stripping" process begins. be-gins. First the "civvies" go into boxes for shipment home. Then the men go through the line. Each enlisted man in the navy or naval reserve is given an allotment of $118 for uniforms and equipment. More than 700 experienced stewards, stew-ards, bakers, butchers and storekeepers store-keepers man huge mess halls on the station, while a veritable army of mess attendants recruits who must spend some time in mess halls as part of their training serve the Bluejackets. Twelve general mess halls now are operated on the station. sta-tion. Cafeteria Style. Because of the great number of men consuming three "squares" a day., the navy serves its food cafeteria cafe-teria style, in compartment trays. The men "polish off" their meals at long, cleanly scrubbed tables. To facilitate operations at the conclusion conclu-sion of each meal, the sailors stack their trays, dishes and silverware, which are then sent to automatic dish washers for a speedy cleansing. Each mess hall is equipped with a modern galley, butcher shop, vegetable vege-table locker, bake shop, refrigerators, refrigera-tors, bread room, store rooms and issuing rooms. Fruits and vegetables are delivered deliv-ered daily to insure freshness; carrots, car-rots, onions and rutabagas are locally lo-cally grown and locally purchased; cheese, butter, eggs and poultry are trucked in from Illinois and Wisconsin. Wis-consin. Dry provisions, such as canned tomatoes, are requisitioned in carload lots from the Navy Supply Sup-ply Depot at Norfolk, Va. Coffee is received in 5,000-pound lots from the Provision and Clothing Depot at Brooklyn, N. Y., where the navy operates its own roasting plant. Sixteen different varieties of fruits and vegetables are served in general gen-eral mess: Potatoes, cabbage, turnips, tur-nips, tomatoes, broccoli, apples, tangerines, tan-gerines, orange's, lettuce, celery, peppers, cucumbers, onions, bananas ba-nanas and cranberries. |