The Benson signal., 1917-06-30
about $500 Men Being Fitted for
the Navy at the Great Lakes
Station.
EVERY MINUTE IS OCCUPIED
Keen Determination to Make Good Is
the Prevailing Spirit of the Camp
plan to Make Station Larg-
est of Kind in World.

Great Lakes, Ill.-AbOut $500 men
are being fitted for fighting in the ma
TONS first line of defense at the Unit
ed States naval training station here.
Not unlike that in a big college
football camp is the routine of their
training. Chief petty officers are the
coaches who drill the men up and
down the fields in the final days Of
preparation for the big game-war.
Every minute is made to mean some
thing. On a dozen fields the air is
filed with the authoritative commands
of the officers and the pounding of
thousands of heavily-shod feet on the
turf. Commingling is the blare Of the
bands, which are directed by Lieut..
John Philip Sousa, famous bandmas-
ter, who now has 242 musicians In
training and expects to develop the
finest military band in the world.
But the spirit of the camp is as seri-
GUS as that in football camp. And,
as evinced by the last days of Novem-
Der. in any college, the statement is
not meant lightly. Everywhere about
the station the sentiment seems to be
to stick to the team and make good
showing in the eyes of the coaches
that permanent place may be OBJ
tanned in the greatest game of all. G.
G. Smith, captain of this years foot
ball eleven at the University of Michi-
gan, expressed this when he said:
"We are going in with everything
we have. We are going to win and
make the commandant, Capt. w. A.
Moffett, proud of us when we go to
sea or be ground to pieces trying"
To Train 10000 Men.
Plans are under way to make the
station the largest of it's kind in the
world. Preparations have been made
to train upward of 10000 men during
the summer. The navy department,
upon the suggestion Of Captain Mof-
fett, has asked congress to apprOpri-
ate funds for this purpose.
Constructed originally for 100 men,
the war and the resultant influx Of re-
cruits has necessitated the springing
up of a white, tented city on the reser-
walton and adjoining leased land. Camp
Paul Jones, lying Immediately to the
north of the station proper has been
fully equipped and shelters 5000 men,
among them the naval militia from the
states Of Michigan and Missouri.
It is believed that the station will
train five-eighths of the men who go
to the navy during the war. Recruits
itxy in
the middle West are expected, men
from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota,
South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Mis-
souri,, Iowa, Kentucky and parts Of
other states being sent here to learn
the business of a man-O'-warSman.
Men of Every Station.
Virile young Americans, from the
colleges, offices, farms and factories
of the middle West, the men at the
station seem to be trained for almost
anything. Here one may see civil
engineer enlisted as an apprentice
seaman, using his transit to make
bench marks, while over there on the
corner of the reservation are the two
slender, 400-fOot wireless towers from
which a man is sending a wireless mes
sage to the government station in Ar
lington, Va. In the heterogeneous per-
sOnnel there is a representative of al
most every trade, profession and busi-
ness.
Home-sickness is a disease that has
little place at the station. There is
not time for it. Lying in the SUM-.