HISTORY

The Naval Training Center, San Diego, had its inception in 1916 when Mr. William Kettner, Congressman from the Eleventh Congressional District of California and spokesman for the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, interested the Honorable Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, in establishing a naval training activity on the shores of San Diego Bay. Due to the Nation's entry into World War I, further development of this plan was postponed until 1919, when Congress authorized acceptance by the Navy of the present site of the Training Center. The original grant consisted of 135 acres of highland donated by the San Diego Chamber of Commerce and 142 acres of tideland given by the City of San Diego. Construction work began in 1921, and on 1 June 1923 the U.S. Naval Training Station, San Diego, was placed in commission under the command of Captain (later Rear Admiral) David F. Sellers, U.S. Navy.

At the time of its commissioning in 1921 the station bore little resemblance to its present size or arrangement. At that time Camp Paul Jones housed the entire population of the station and the maximum recruit strength was 1,500. The period of recruit training was then sixteen weeks. The shore line of San Diego Bay extended considerably further inland than at present, and the land now occupied by Preble Field, the North Athletic Area and Camp Farragul was entirely under water. The recruit parade ground was located on the present site of the Public Works garage. During the 1920's the Recruit Receiving and Outgoing Units were housed in the Detention Unit, known as Camp Ingram, which consisted of a group of walled tents adjacent to the south boundary of Camp Paul Jones. Until Camp Lawrence was completed in 1936, recruits spent their first three weeks of training under canvas in this Detention Unit.

In 1939 a construction program was commenced which within three years was to increase the capacity of the station four-fold. This expansion went hand in glove with a large scale program of harbor improvements by means of which the channel and anchorages in San Diego Bay were deepened and 130 acres of filled land were added in the eastern boundaries of the station. By 1941 Camp Luce had been completed, and the construction of Camp Mahan, Decatur, and Farragut was already well underway when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Virtually all this construction work was completed by September 1942, when the capacity of the station had reached its wartime peak of 33,000 men, 25,000 of whom were recruits. The period of recruit training during World War II varied between three weeks and seven weeks.

In April, 1944, the Secretary of the Navy changed the status of the Training Station to that of a group command and predesignated it the U.S. Naval Training Center, San Diego. Under the Center commander were established three subordinate commands: The Recruit Training Command, The Service School Command and the Administrative Command.

The years immediately following World War II saw a considerable reduction in population of the Training Center despite a post-war expansion of the Service Schools, and by the end of 1949 the population of the Center had dropped to a twenty-year low of 5,800 men. Six months later, when the Communists invaded the Republic of Korea, an immediate expansion of all Naval training activities took place and by September of 1950 the Center was again operating at nearly full capacity.

During the early months of the Korean conflict it became apparent that the demand for trained personnel in the rapidly growing Pacific Fleet would require further expansion of this training center. Accordingly steps were taken by the Navy Department to reactivate Camp Elliott, formerly a World War II Marine Corps training camp which is located ten miles north of San Diego on Kearny Mesa. On 15 January 1951 Camp Elliott was placed in commission as Elliott Annex of the Naval Training Center for the purpose of conducting the primary phases of recruit training. In March, 1953, in line with the planned reduction in size of the Navy, training at Elliott Annex was discontinued and it was placed in an inactive status. During its two years of operation, over 150,000 recruits received training there.

Late in 1952 projects were approved to convert some recruit barracks into classrooms and to extend training facilities by construction of a permanent recruit camp on the undeveloped Training Center land lying to the south and east of the estuary. The six converted barracks went into service as recruit classrooms in April, 1953, and construction work on the new camp was completed in 1955. With the completion of this project the Naval Training Center filled out to its present boundaries of 435 acres.

In the furtherance of its mission of supplying trained naval personnel to the fleets and ships of the United States Navy, each of the three subordinate commands of the Naval Training Center has important roles to fill.

The Administrative Command has the responsibility of conducting most of the Center’s administrative business and furnishing a wide range of services necessary to the daily life of the large community which the Center has become. The Administrative Command has the responsibility of maintaining the Center’s buildings and grounds, and through its facilities all personnel on the Center are housed, fed, clothed and paid, and receive their medical and dental care. The Administrative Command also provides such other community services as recreational and Navy exchange facilities; communications, postal and transportation services; and police and fire protection

Under the Service School Command are grouped more than twenty Navy schools in which recruits as well as men from the fleet receive training in the specialized duties lf certain ratings. Most of these are Class “A” schools, where non-rated men learn the skills and information necessary to them to perform a specific petty officer rating. Among these schools are those which train fire control technicians, electricians mates, radiomen, yeomen, commissarymen and stewards. Other schools teach specialized skills such as motion picture operation, teletype maintenance, and stenography. The present capacity of the Service Schools is about 5,000 men.

The largest of the three commands at the Training Center is the Recruit Training Command. Here the recruit undergoes his transition from civilian to military life; learns the history, traditions, customs and regulations of is chosen service; and receives instruction in naval skills and subjects which will be basic information throughout his period of naval service.

Most of the facilities of the Recruit Training Command are centered on Bainbridge Court and occupy the western half of the Training Center. Here are concentrated the barracks and headquarters of the recruit brigade, and nearby are located the mess halls, classrooms, athletic fields and recreation buildings used by the recruits.

Now in its forty first year of service to the Navy, the Naval Training Center, San Diego, faces with confidence the challenges of an unsettled world.