Recruit Training Command

Recruit Training Command Great Lakes
Seal of Recruit Training Command
Founded	July 1, 1911; 105 years ago (1911-07-01)
Country	United States of America
Branch	United States Navy
Role	Recruit training
Garrison/HQ	Naval Station Great Lakes North Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Motto(s)	"The Quarterdeck of the Navy"
Website	http://www.bootcamp.navy.mil/
Commanders
Commanding officer	CAPT Michael S. Garrick, USN
Executive officer	CDR Richard Huth, USN
Command master chief	CMDCM Shawn Isbell, USN

Recruit Training Command Great Lakes (RTC Great Lakes), is a unit within the United States Navy primarily responsible for conducting the initial orientation and indoctrination of incoming recruits. It commonly is referred to as boot camp, recruit training, or RTC. Since the BRAC-directed closures of Recruit Training Commands in Orlando, Florida and San Diego, California in 1999, RTC Great Lakes has been the only enlisted basic training location in the U.S. Navy and has been called "The Quarterdeck of the Navy" since it was first utilized in July 1911.

Running at approximately eight weeks long, all enlistees into the U.S. Navy commence their enlistments at this command. Upon successful completion of basic training, qualifying sailors are sent to various apprenticeship, or "A schools", located across the United States for training in their occupational speciality, or ratings. Those who have not yet received a specific rating enter the fleet with a general designation of airman, fireman, or seaman. Recruit Training Command is located at Naval Station Great Lakes in the city of North Chicago, Illinois in Lake County, north of Chicago. It is a tenant command, meaning that although it is located on the base, it has a separate chain of command.

After the Spanish–American War, the U.S. Navy began investigating 37 sites around Lake Michigan in order to locate a new training center in the Midwest, an area that contributed 43 percent of the Navy’s recruits at the time.

Illinois Congressional Representative and chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs (1900–1911) George Edmund Foss pressed for the decision to locate the center at its present location, and was later called "The Father of Great Lakes". Foss Park, just north of the base in North Chicago is named in his honor. It is likely the facility would have been located elsewhere had it not been for the $175,000 contribution of the Merchants Club of Chicago to purchase the land.