Made just prior to WWII by Pathescope, this full color production, “The Navy Recruit” shows a group of men going through indoctrination / induction nto the peacetime Navy, including basic training and physical and aptitude testing. The film presents an attractive view of Navy life, with great food, healthcare, physical fitness, and educational opportunities. All sorts of training is shown from firefighting (16:18), small boat handling, and specialties from radio operation (17:30), motion picture photography and aerial photography (17:40), corpsmen (18:00), signals (18:10), hard hat diving (18:20), and more.
The film was shot at the Naval Station Great Lakes (NAVSTA Great Lakes), which is still the home of the United States Navy’s only boot camp, located near North Chicago, in Lake County, Illinois. Important tenant commands include the Recruit Training Command, Training Support Center and Navy Recruiting District Chicago. Naval Station Great Lakes is the second largest military installation in Illinois and the largest training station in the Navy. The base has 1,153 buildings situated on 1,628 acres (6.59 km2) and has 50 miles (80 km) of roadway to provide access to the base’s facilities. Within the naval service, it has several different nicknames, including “The Quarterdeck of the Navy”, or the more derogatory “Great Mistakes”.
The base is like a small city, with its own Fire Department, Naval Security Forces (Police), and Public Works Department.
In 1923, Naval Reserve Air Base, Great Lakes was commissioned. Recruit training slowed after the war and halted in 1933. In 1932, Great Lakes had 102 buildings on 507 acres (205 ha). A harbor was constructed around that time at a cost of $1 million ($17.3 million today).
1 July 1933, Great Lakes was closed and placed in a maintenance status. It was reopened 1 July 1935 after lobbying by local businessmen and the Congressional Delegation from Illinois.[8] In 1936, aviation training was moved from Great Lakes to Naval Air Station Glenview. 9 December 1940, the Class A Service School opened for its first class.
On 7 December 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan and around 6,000 sailors were training at Great Lakes. This grew to 68,000 in six months and by September 1942 over 100,000 sailors were training at Great Lakes. The base grew to 1,600 acres (650 ha) in the next 10 months. By mid-1943 there were over 700 instructors at the Class A service schools.
The Navy selected Great Lakes to be the site of the first African American trainees. On 5 June 1942, Doreston Luke Carmen of Galveston, Texas was the first recruit to enter the segregated training facility at Camp Robert Smalls. In September 1942, segregated “Negro Service Schools” were opened. The policy of segregation led to small service school classes with only four or five students in a class. By 1944 Great Lakes began to integrate training and all training was integrated by mid-1945. The Golden Thirteen were commissioned in March 1944 after training at Great Lakes.
Four Million served on active duty in the Navy during World War II. Over one million sailors were trained at Great Lakes.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
