Recruit Training Command News

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, navies adjusted how they operate at home and while deployed, to keep their forces ready for any missions as they keep their Sailors, families, communities, as well as allies and partners safe from the coronavirus.Navies have taken a number of prudent preventative measures to limit outbreaks, mitigate cases of infection and reduce the community spread of the virus.Speaking during his May 29 “On The Horizon: Navigating the European and African Theaters” podcast, Admiral James G. Foggo III, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa, said The U.S.

The Navy is recruiting Sailors to become recruit division commanders (RDCs) at Recruit Training Command, the Navy's only boot camp, and Officer Training Command, as announced in the NAVADMIN 042/17 message, released Feb. 23. Chief of Naval Personnel, Vice Adm. R. P. Burke, in the message calls on Navy leadership to canvass their top-quality enlisted personnel and encourage them to consider RDC as their next shore duty choice. The job of an RDC is not easy shore duty. The hours are long, the work is physically challenging, and strong character and personal integrity are required throughout the RDCs' work day. However, the personal reward of training and preparing Sailors for the fleet is unmatched.

The Great Lakes Naval Museum was officially renamed the National Museum of the American Sailor during a ceremony and sign unveiling at the museum July 4. The Navy's top enlisted Sailor, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (AW/NAC) Mike Stevens, was joined by retired Rear Adm. Sam Cox, director of Naval History and Heritage Command, North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham, Capt. James Hawkins, commanding officer of Naval Station Great Lakes, Jennifer Searcy, Ph.D., director of the National Museum of the American Sailor, and representatives from the Great Lakes Naval Museum Foundation and National Museum of the American Sailor Foundation to unveil the new sign in front of the museum.

The Navy's top enlisted Sailor, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) Mike D. Stevens, was on hand to distribute the first electronic tablets (e-tablets) to the Navy's newest recruits at Recruit Training Command (RTC), April 7. The launch of the eSailor initiative is a pre-pilot, beta testing to two divisions of 70 recruits to help determine how well the device integrates into the training environment at RTC. The e-tablet will contain RTC curriculum, including training videos, texts and access to professional development websites. RTC is primarily responsible for conducting the initial Navy orientation and training of new recruits.

Naval Service Training Command (NSTC) kicked off Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month (SAAPM) with the launch of a new Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) website, April 1. With the NSTC geographic domain extending throughout the country, overseeing Recruit Training Command, Officer Training Command, Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC), which contains more than 160 affiliated colleges and universities, this new SAPR website will provide "one-stop" shop for SAPR resources. "At NSTC, we train 98 percent of the Sailors and officers who enter the Navy," said Capt. Bob Fink, NSTC deputy commander. "Establishing a culture in our Navy that is intolerant of sexual assault and supportive of victims begins with us.

In an effort to standardize training and education across the military services, Recruit Training Command (RTC) and Officer Training Command (OTC) will run a pilot program, which will no longer require female accessions to cut their hair. The pilot program, which will run from January through March 2015, comes after receiving fleet feedback that junior Sailors and officers are not taught proper grooming standards with longer hair. This shift will align the Navy with every other armed forces service, which do not require female accessions to cut their hair. RTC and OTC required all females with long hair to cut it to the lower edge of the uniform collar. Now, female Sailors will have the ability to choose any hairstyle that meets uniform regulations.

Career opportunities for active-duty female Sailors are abundant with the Women Ashore program, Navy detailers said Nov. 12. "There are opportunities for female Sailors to earn their Instructor Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) (9502), their master training specialist qualification, corrections specialist NEC (9575), or even their Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) instructor NEC (9505)," said Chief Yeoman (AW) Anna Masterson, detailer, Shore Special Programs. * Instructor Duty at Training Support Center (TSC) Great Lakes, Illinois. This duty is primarily designated for Navy Military Training Instructors (NMTI). NMTIs at…

At Recruit Training Command, they transform civilians into basically trained, physically fit, well disciplined Sailors – 39,000 of them each year. They are trained by a cadre of fleet experienced enlisted Sailors who must meet stringent screening standards and embody our Navy core values of honor, courage and commitment. The Command continually looks for talented 2nd and 1st class petty officers, chiefs and senior chiefs to become recruit division commanders and basic naval orientation instructors, tasked with forging the next generation of Sailors. "Just as our recruits will go into every field in the Navy, the recruit division commanders and instructors come from every enlisted community throughout the fleet," says Capt. John Dye, Commanding Officer, Recruit Training Command.

The Navy's unique, high-tech simulator of shipboard emergencies to test Recruits at Recruit Training Command (RTC) Great Lakes won a national award for construction project excellence Nov. Battle Stations 21's USS Trayer, a life-like mockup of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and its surrounding 157,000-square-foot building, was recognized by the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) as the best overall design-build project in the United States for 2008, cited for exemplary interdisciplinary teamwork, innovation and problem-solving in creating the one-of-a-kind facility.

Sailors salute while manning the rails of USS Trayer (BST 21) during the commissioning ceremony for the Navy's newest simulator. Trayer, along with Battle Stations 21, is the culmination of all training received at the Navy's only boot camp. The simulator is a grueling 12-hour test of a recruit's skills in several shipboard evolutions, including fighting fires and stopping floods. The final evolution, now held entirely in the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer simulator, marks a recruit's final rite of passage into the Navy. U.S. Navy photo by Mr. Scott A. By Scott A. The Navy's newest and largest simulator, USS Trayer (BST 21), was commissioned here June 18.

The Center for Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Diving (CENEODDIVE) has established a new learning site at Training Support Center (TSC), Great Lakes, Ill., where the first class commenced Oct. 19 with a group of 18 EOD students. The new site was created to conduct preparatory training for Navy Diver (ND) and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel emerging from Recruit Training Command (RTC), Great Lakes. Traditionally, an ND or EOD Sailor would receive training at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center (NDSTC) in Panama City, Fla., following boot camp at RTC. By undergoing preparatory training at Great Lakes, however, Sailors who have elected to participate in the ND and EOD special programs will receive a basic introduction to diving physics…

Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter visited Naval Station Great Lakes Oct. 10 and met with Sailors and toured Recruit Training Command (RTC) and Training Support Center (TSC). While touring RTC, Winter remarked about the considerable changes at the Navy’s only boot camp. “It’s interesting just to talk to the people in charge and to understand the dynamics of the training process,” Winter said. “I’m very pleased with what I’m hearing in terms of the overall adaptation of the training process to the Navy of the 21st century. RTC is nearly finished with a massive recapitalization program that began after the Navy consolidated all enlisted Basic Training from San Diego and Orlando, Fla., to RTC Great Lakes.