Great Lakes AKA Great Mistakes

“1977... Marching at Great Lakes every day is what prepared me for later years of hiking.


CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Generations of recruits at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center have marched from barracks to classroom, classroom to barracks, barracks to mess hall -- more than a mile and a half a day for their nine weeks of basic training.

"Two years ago, we did more marching than even the Marine Corps or the Army," said Rear Adm. Ann Rondeau, commander of the center in North Chicago.

But the nation's only boot camp for Navy enlistees is undergoing a major change -- and less marching for the roughly 45,000 recruits who pass through every year is only a part of it.

Instead of wasting training time by making recruits adapt to the aging base, the base is adapting to them. The result, Rondeau and others say, should be better-trained, healthier sailors who are prepared to serve from the day they graduate.

Two years ago, recruits were allotted six and a half hours of sleep. Today, they get eight hours, a reflection that most people need that much shuteye to be healthy and to learn effectively.

Recruits no longer spend a week of their training on kitchen duty. Meals are handled by a private company, leaving more time for training in fighting, survival and counterterrorism techniques.

The two giant dining halls are disappearing, to be replaced by galleys in the barracks.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/11/12/navy.changes.ap/index.html

I can still remember standing in line outside the chow hall in the morning darkness. Oh, Joy!”

“Make sure everyone is there before you sit down. Drink your two glasses of water first. Dig in. Yummm. What is it? I don't know, but we have 5 minutes left to eat and I want to go back for seconds. Oh yeah, I remember.

Did your instructer stand at the head of the line ask you questions about the chain of command? If you could not answer it, you had to go to the back.”

“My dad was an instructor for C school during that time. I pretty much grew up there.

I used to love the old theater.”

“It's so nice to see people getting along.”

“Aren't they so cute when they have something in common?”