The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-09-10
Navy's Lads, Clear-Eyed and
Erect, Are Given the Best.
Type Seen With Great Lakes
Band Now in Topeka.
IN WORLDS GREATEST STATION
Nothing Can Equal Efforts OF
Uncle Sam There.
How Kansas Boys Go Inflow
They Come Out.

Monday was navy day in Topeka,
and Topeka enjoyed the sight of a de-
tachment of trim bluejaekets from the
Great Lakes naval training station.
Topeka heard navy music, saw the big
naval exhibit at the fair, saw the sail
ors march and awoke today with new
interest in the. sea fighting branch of
Uncle Sans defenders. And immedi-
ately Topekans, large and small but
, particularly-t those mothers who have
boys in the navy. stopped every blue
jacket they saw and asked questions
about the navy and Great Lakes.
AS the worlds greatest naval train
ing station. with a personnel of more
than $4,000 men. band or 1,5OV
pieces, the tallest radio towers in the
training sailors for every branch of
sea service, Great Lakes is probably
the most talked of war school in
America. To the reokies-many of
them Kansas boys who have never
been nearer salt water than the mo-
ton pictures of navy life staged in the
home town cinema palace-Great
Lakes is a series of wonders.
Every day this summer an average
of 1000 of these middle west boys
of the main station ready to enter one
of the four detention camps where
they spend their first three weeks of
navy life.
First Three Weeks.
These first three weeks of detention
are probably the most keenly interest
ing of any three weeks the recruit Will
see in the navy. He absorbs knowl-
| edge with marvellous rapidity and
when he gains his first twelve hours
liberty at the end of that third week
he has a select vocabulary of salty ex-
pressions, cleaned from his more Elk
| perienced mates, that would make a
deep sea whaler green with envy.
| There are jolts, of course, but dis
cipline does away with these when the
| middle west boy learns that he must
practice cleanliness, speed and -ac-
curacy. On entering the big gates, for
| all the world like the entrance to some
old university, the recruit is relieved
| of his cigarets, any alcoholic prepare
lions he may have, and other things
| the navy has learned he is better off
| without. Then de is assigned to one
| of the detention camp barracks. Here
| he drills bit, gets a. sea bag filled
| with more clothing than he ever
thought one man could use, is issued
a hammock, a mattress, two mattress
| covers and a pair of big, thick blue
wooden blankets. About the third day
comes his first ordeal. His company
is lined up, stripped to the waist,
scrubbed with alcohol, painted with
iodine and then shot" for typfSus and
|
two days he carries his right arm care
| fully draped over his heart and swears
volubly y when some careless mate
| touches it.
Then he starts drill in earnest He
learns to dodge bayonets when his
| squad does ito the rear, march," exc
cute pivot positions in all squad for
! nations and pipe out "Aye, aye, sir"
when his commander issues orders.
| He Must Salute.
About the eighth day, when he has
I begun feeling at no ne in a deco1lette
white jumper, he gets his second in
oculation and inspection Of his small
| pox vaccinations. By this time he has
learned that detail may mean any
thing from shoveling coal to washing
| windows and is to be conscientiously
| avoided when possible and equally
! conscientiously carried out when or
dered. He knows that a guard has to
salute commissioned officers with his
| right hand when he has no gun an6
| present arms when he has a gun; thai
| a guard can't sit down or lie down as
| long as he wears cartridge belt an6
| bayonet, and that he must challenge
everybody, regardless of rank, after
| pipe down. is sounded, when the bis
cannon of the main station booms
| 9 o'clock.
| The third Shot + which usually
| comes about the seventeenth day OF
detention, has little error for the re-
cruit. He shows his disdain by turn