Naval Station Great Lakes (Great Lakes Naval Training Station)

Naval Station Great Lakes is the United States Navy's recruit training and enlisted technical training installation, located near North Chicago in Lake County, Illinois, on the western shore of Lake Michigan. It falls under Navy Region Mid-Atlantic and is the largest military installation in Illinois and the largest training station in the Navy. It is known within the service as "The Quarterdeck of the Navy".

Recruit Training Command is the Navy's sole basic training facility, a status held since 1996. Roughly 40,000 recruits pass through annually, with some 7,000 aboard the installation at any one time. Training Support Center Great Lakes conducts enlisted technical training with an annual throughput of about 16,000 sailors and supports six learning sites: Surface Combat Systems Training Command, a Surface Warfare Officers School Command unit, the Center for Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Diving, the Center for Naval Leadership, the Center for Personal Development and the Center for Service Support. Class "A" schools resident at the station cover the electrician's mate, electronics technician, fire controlman, gunner's mate, interior communications electrician, boatswain's mate, operations specialist, hull maintenance technician, damage controlman, engineman, gas turbine system technician (electrical and mechanical), machinery repairman, quartermaster and machinist's mate ratings. Apprentice Technical Training provides basic electrical and troubleshooting instruction for all rates requiring it, including mineman and sonar technician (surface) and some aviation rates prior to detachment to San Diego and Pensacola; boatswain's mates complete Surface Common Core basic maintenance training and engineering rates complete Basic Engineering Common Core. Navy Talent Acquisition Group Great Lakes is also a tenant. Hospital corpsman "A" school moved to Joint Base San Antonio in 2011 and culinary specialist "A" school to Fort Lee in 2010.

The station occupies 1,628 acres with 1,153 buildings and 69 miles of internal roadway, and operates as a self-contained community with its own fire department, Naval Security Forces and public works department. A port was built in the 1930s. Recent construction includes recruit barracks known as "ships" and the Battle Stations 21 trainer, part of some $800 million invested in facilities. Ross Field serves as the ceremonial parade ground.

The site was approved in 1904 under President Theodore Roosevelt, with construction supervised by Captain Albert R. Ross, and the training station was dedicated by President William Howard Taft in 1911. The 1993 Base Realignment and Closure Commission closed the recruit training commands at San Diego and Orlando, consolidating all Navy enlisted recruit training at Great Lakes.