Join in the story of four recruits as they make their way into the United States Navy through the training pipeline, never before so intimately profiled, of the Navy's Recruit Training Command (RTC) in Great Lakes, Ill. Beginning with their hometowns across the United States, watch the young men and women featured in Making a Sailor walk in the footsteps of millions of Americans before them, stepping off the bus at RTC, beginning their training, learning necessary skills, toughness, and discipline, and moving on towards graduation. Throughout the six 10-minute episodes, witness firsthand what recruits must both endure and accomplished in order to earn the coveted title, "United States Navy Sailor."
He jumped down from the tree, bare feet crunching on the dense bed of jungle foliage, his young hands gripping freshly-picked fruit. He darted deeper through the deep green layers of trees to find water - a part of his morning routine. For a child growing up in the rural countryside of Trinidad, this was nothing out of the ordinary.
Most Sailors know it can be difficult to keep up with training while deployed, or even at home in a high optempo environment.
Navy leaders know it too, and the chief of naval operations' Ready, Relevant Learning (RRL) initiative pledges to deliver training at the right time, in the right place and in the right format for today's Sailors. The Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD) is a key stakeholder in this...
From the famous Navajo code talkers to Medal of Honor recipients like Army Master Sgt. Roy Benavidez, Native Americans have served in every American war since the Revolution. According to the National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics, more than 154,000 American Indians and Alaskan Natives served in the military from 1990 to 2010, out of more than 21.8 million total service members. With a long lineage of service, they have played...
When Indoctrination Day begins at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, the newest batch of nervous, anxious and sweaty plebes (midshipmen 4th class) are hurry around the majestic, riverfront campus from one processing station to the next. They receive a crash course in military bearing. However, about 270 of them are ready for the challenge.
In 1811, facing a generation of aging Revolutionary War veterans, the nation made a promise. It promised to care for them, seeing to their medical needs. It fulfilled that promise with first the U.S. Naval Asylum in Philadelphia in 1834, then the U.S. Military Asylum in Washington, D.C., in 1851.
A brightly decorated pavilion at Admiral Baker Park in San Diego, California, bustles with activity. A party is well underway. Just about 100 people have gathered to celebrate a father, grandfather, great grandfather and friend. His name is Joe Renteria. Wearing a vibrantly colored Hawaiian shirt and a long silver braid down his back, he walks confidently around the tables, shaking hands and embracing some in hugs of love.
Fire! Fire! Surrounded by water, but with nowhere to go, no way to escape, Sailors on USS Forrestal (CVA 59) watched in horror for one split second as flames began to engulf their ship, July 29, 1967. They jumped into action, but then came explosion after explosion, fireball after fireball.
