New Navy recruits will have to endure one less week of boot camp before becoming full-fledged sailors, the Navy announced Wednesday. The service said its Basic Military Training program at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois will drop from 10 weeks to 9 beginning early next year.
A note on the Navy’s official boot camp website for incoming recruits said Wednesday the change would apply to recruits arriving on or after Jan. 6, 2025.
The Navy said the change is in line with the Chief of Naval Operations’ Navigation Plan 2024, emphasizing “fleet readiness, training efficiency, and the preparation of mission-ready sailors.”
“Our focus is on delivering a streamlined yet robust training experience that equips our Sailors with the essential skills they need to succeed in the fleet,” Rear Adm. Craig Mattingly, the commander of Naval Service Training Command, said in a Navy press release. “This change will help us achieve that, providing a rigorous curriculum that ensures readiness while enabling Recruits to join the fleet faster.”
A training calendar on the boot camp site appears to reflect the new curriculum. After inprocessing, the calendar notes several sections:
- Weeks 1 and 2 are “Indoctrination” with military basics familiar to anyone who has been through a boot camp: customs and courtesies, uniform issue and wear, watchstanding and learning basic service-related information like ranks, ships and planes, the basics of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and Naval history. Recruits take a basic swim test during Week 1 and get a phone call at the end of week 2.
- Weeks 3-5 are “Militarization” with basic Navy skills aboard a large-scale simulator known as the USS Marlinespike. Recruits learn basic seamanship and what the Navy terms the five warfighting fundamentals: firefighting, damage control, seamanship, watchstanding and basic weapons training.
- Weeks 6-7 are “Evaluation” in which recruits are tested on the training in the first 5 weeks
- Weeks 8-9 include a final challenge known as Battle Stations 21, a 12-hour simulated combat event on the USS Trayor, a destroyer-simulator. Recruits also learn small team leadership, final inspections and administrative tasks. The final weeks also incorporated the “Sailor for Life” program, which the Navy said, is “aimed at fostering resilience, mental toughness, and leadership throughout a sailor’s career.”
The Navy added the two-week “Sailor for Life” curriculum to Basic Military Training in 2022, increasing the length of boot camp from 8 weeks to 10.
The latest on Task & Purpose
- A push to cut veterans disability benefits is gaining traction, experts warn
- A judge ordered the VA to build thousands of new veterans housing units in Los Angeles. An appeals court halted it
- Sailors on USS Carney recall tense night of combat in fierce Red Sea fight
- To build a runway for the new stealth bomber, the Air Force is moving 17 B-1s to a new base
- VFW bashes The Economist for taking ‘turkey-sized dump’ on disabled vet