Those around when the then-Great Lakes Naval Training Center was dedicated on Oct. 28, 1911, by President William Howard Taft surely didn’t see the future growth that would occur at the North Chicago installation. The Navy, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary next week, has also matched that growth.
The first graduating class of sailors at Great Lakes marched in review past Taft on that fall date just shy of 114 years ago as an estimated 10,000 military men, dignitaries and local Lake County residents were on hand. Taft’s fellow Republican, President Theodore Roosevelt, set in motion the beginnings of Great Lakes when construction began in 1904.
It was Roosevelt who, in his second message to Congress in 1902, said: “A good Navy is not a provocation to war. It is the surest guaranty of peace.” Gates to Great Lakes were opened on July 1, 1911, to the first future seamen.
Since its opening, Naval Station Great Lakes has gone on to become the Navy’s largest training installation and the home of the service’s only “boot camp”. On more than 1,600 acres, the base includes some 1,153 buildings, with 39 of them on the National Register of Historic Places.
The base and surrounding communities support more than 20,000 sailors, Marines and Department of War civilians. It has been estimated Great Lakes adds more than $4.6 billion to the Illinois economy.
The base has had a storied history and proud legacy since 1911, as has the Navy, which was created on Oct. 13, 1775. Then it was the Continental Navy, tasked with defending the homeland at sea and tangling with British frigates on the Atlantic Ocean.
From then till today, sailors from the fleet forged in salt on the high seas first on masted ships and then those of steel, have been on call. Certainly, when a crisis breaks out the first question in a situation room is how soon a U.S. naval task force can reach trouble spots.
The Navy began celebrating its 250th birthday in January and will also commemorate its maritime contributions to the nation during next year’s semiquincentennial marking 250 years from the start of the American Revolution and our break from English rule.
The government shutdown, now in its ninth day — which means military personnel continue on normal duty status but without pay — likely has curtailed some events marking the 250th anniversary of the Navy at Great Lakes. But supporters and Navy personnel will toast the service’s founding at a sold-out dress blue/black tie bash on Oct. 17 at the Lincolnshire Marriott Resort.
President Donald Trump got an early start saluting the Navy while at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, the largest naval base in the world, on Oct. 5. More than 10,000 sailors were on hand to hear the president praise the Navy, which he said “never failed to hunt, kill and win.”
That description of the service’s mission is a long way from the benign motto once used by the Navy: “A Global Force for Good.” Not that service members haven’t had to be hunters and killers against those who would do the nation harm.
Although some weren’t sure we needed a standing navy. After the Revolutionary War, the Continental Navy was disbanded and its ships sold. President George Washington saw the need for a naval force, and urged the reinstatement of the service in 1794, according to the service’s history.
The need for a Navy continued through the War of 1812, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. The Naval War College was established in 1884 in Newport, Rhode Island.
Since its humble beginnings, sailors have encountered Barbary pirates in the Navy’s first international mission in 1801 and similar brigands in Mideast waters. The Navy battled British ships on the Great Lakes during the War of 1812, and drug lords today off South America.
During World War II, the U.S. Navy became the largest armada on the globe. Japanese officials surrendered on a U.S. battleship, the Missouri.
The service pioneered the use of nuclear submarines in 1954 with the launch of the U.S.S. Nautilus. Navy pilots have flown countless combat missions and have become astronauts.
An estimated 41 million Americans have served in the Navy since its founding. That number includes five presidents: John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush.
Overall, not a bad record of accomplishment considering the fickle ebb and flow Americans have had with our military and those who serve. This week, take some time to salute the Navy and its sailors, who also happen to be our neighbors.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
sellenews@gmail.com
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