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Inside Navy Boot Camp (05:14)

Take a step-by-step tour of Navy Boot Camp at Great Lakes Recruit Training Depot to discover how recruits transform into Sailors.

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Department of Defense

Take a step-by-step tour of Navy Boot Camp at Great Lakes Recruit Training Depot to discover how recruits transform into Sailors.

Upon arrival, recruits receive haircuts and new clothes and set up their “racks,” where they sleep and store their personal items. Then it’s time for class. The aspiring Sailors prepare for a final physical fitness assessment, and engage in training for several skills, including swimming, small-arms marksmanship and firefighting.

At the end of the training, the recruits stay on a destroyer simulator, the USS Trayer, so they can experience what life is like at sea. This ship is no ordinary training facility; in fact, it was built by Hollywood set designers to give recruits a taste of what it’s really like to live at sea.

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