New NROTC Midshipmen Graduate from New Student Indoctrination at Navy’s Only Boot Camp

Photo By Chief Petty Officer Amanda Kitchner | GREAT LAKES, Ill. (July 22, 2019) – Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) midshipmen candidates arrive at Midway Ceremonial Drill Hall at Recruit Training Command (RTC) for their graduation ceremony marking the completion NROTC New Student Indoctrination. The young men and women from across the country are entering their freshman year of the NROTC program at universities nationwide this fall. They have completed a three-week indoctrination program hosted at RTC, the U. S. Navy’s only boot camp, which provides standardized entry-level militarization and prepares midshipmen with a common training orientation. They are led by Navy-option 1st class and Marine-option 2nd class midshipmen, instructors and staff from NROTC units across the country. The staff is overseeing and instructing the midshipmen candidates with assistance from the Recruit Division Commanders and instructors assigned to RTC as well as active duty Marine Corps Drill Instructors. New Student Indoctrination provides basic training in five warfighting fundamentals – Fire Fighting, Damage Control, Seamanship, Watchstanding and Small Arms Handling and Marksmanship – to begin creating basically trained, smartly disciplined, tough and courageous future Navy and Marine Corps Officers. (U. S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Amanda S. Kitchner/Released)  

GREAT LAKES, IL, UNITED STATES

07.22.2019

Story by Scott Thornbloom 

Naval Service Training Command     

GREAT LAKES, Ill. (July 22, 2019) – Nearly 400 Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) midshipmen candidates from across the United States completed New Student Indoctrination (NSI) July 1-22 at the Navy’s only boot camp, Recruit Training Command (RTC).

The incoming college freshmen students participated in the new indoctrination program that was piloted in 2018, and fully implemented this summer. NSI is designed to prepare the midshipmen candidates for the NROTC program while providing standardized militarization and initial training. The training takes place in the same facilities that train all Navy enlisted Sailors. New Student Indoctrination begins the process of creating basically-trained, smartly-disciplined, tough and courageous future Navy and Marine Corps Officers.

Upper-class midshipmen, instructors and staff led the final graduating 396 candidates from NROTC units across the country, who oversaw and instructed the midshipman candidates with assistance from the Recruit Division Commanders (RDC) and instructors assigned to RTC, as well as Marine Corps Drill Instructors.

NSI is designed “to bring every new midshipman here to Great Lakes for three weeks, before they go to their universities and (NROTC) units, and provide standardized entry-level militarization,” said Rear Adm. Jamie Sands, Commander, Naval Service Training Command, which oversees the NROTC program. “We give them Warrior Toughness Skills. We train them on a baseline of our five warfighting competencies, applying pressure, and then we send them to their units. Every Sailor and ROTC officer will now come to Great Lakes where we have the great facilities, the programs and the leadership to prepare midshipmen with a common training orientation.”

The three-week NSI included initial militarization, training in the five warfighting competencies – Fire Fighting, Damage Control, Seamanship, Watchstanding and Small Arms Handling and Marksmanship, as well as close order drill, swimming, physical fitness, and military inspections by NROTC staff. The midshipmen candidates also studied Naval customs and courtesies and military history.

This program also provides upper-class NROTC Midshipmen the opportunity to gain leadership experience. Under the guidance of active duty staff and instructors, they are responsible for leading and training the midshipman candidates, very similar to how “Detailers” are responsible for training the “Plebes” at the United States Naval Academy during their summer program.

NSI’s second session will begin later this week with hundreds more midshipman candidates arriving to Great Lakes over the next few days.
Prior to NSI, NROTC was the only officer accession program in the Department of the Navy that did not require an established, standardized, entry-level militarization and indoctrination phase to commence training. The Navy’s two other line-officer accession programs, the United States Naval Academy (USNA) and Officer Candidate School (OCS), have a six week “Plebe Summer” and a three week “Indoctrination Phase,” respectively.

To view updates from NROTC Indoctrination, follow us at: https://www.facebook.com/NavalReserveOfficersTrainingCorps/.

The NROTC program is supported by Rear Adm. Sands and his NSTC staff at Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois. NROTC was established to develop midshipmen mentally, morally and physically. The program also imbues in them the highest ideals of duty, loyalty and Navy core values in order to commission college graduates as Naval officers who possess a basic professional background, are motivated toward careers in the Naval service and have a potential for future development in mind and character so as to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.

NSTC supports 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy’s Citizenship Development program. NSTC’s support also includes RTC, the Navy's only boot camp also at Naval Station Great Lakes, the NROTC program at more than 160 colleges and universities, OTC at Newport, Rhode Island and Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) and Navy National Defense Cadet Corps (NDCC) citizenship development programs at more than 600 high schools worldwide.

For more information on NROTC visit: www.nrotc.navy.mil/

To watch the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) Freshman Indoctrination (NSI Cycle I) Graduation go to: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/698234/naval-reserve-officers-training-corps-nrotc-freshman-indoctrination-graduation

For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit: www.navy.mil/local/greatlakes/.

For more information, visit www.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/usnavy, or www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/greatlakes/.

• Date Taken: 07.22.2019
• Date Posted: 07.24.2019 09:50
• Story ID: 332739
• Location: GREAT LAKES, IL, US