Because naval warfare is serious business, training specialists here felt recruits needed exercises that were as real as they could possibly be. From this desire grew Battle Stations, the culminating event of the Navy's basic training. The event begins at about 10 p.m. on the last week of basic training. In the course of the next 12 hours, sleep-deprived recruits must handle 12 different scenarios. Suddenly, all hell breaks loose.
Lights flash and machine-gun chatter splits the air.
Explosions go off. A recruit is declared wounded, and his teammates must put him on a litter and carry him to safety. Navy recruits push, pull and lift their wounded team member under and over many obstacles during the Mass Casualty exercise at Great Lakes Naval Training Center. Brian Nickey, USAF The team pushes and pulls the litter along passageways, under decks and through barbed wire. After 10 minutes the team converges in a small area under the deck with another team coming from the opposite direction.