Event

Third Thursday Author Series: SD's Naval Training Center

Author Jennifer A. Garey will present a brief pictorial history of the San Diego Naval Training Center.

San Diego's Naval Training Center (NTC) was commissioned on June 1, 1923, and for 70 years served as a young recruit's introduction to a naval career, beginning with nine weeks of basic orientation and organization training (BOOT) camp. Originally consisting of 135 acres adjacent to San Diego Bay, NTC eventually expanded to almost 550 acres with 300 buildings, landscaped promenades, parade grounds, and a concrete training "non-ship," the USS Recruit (a.k.a. USS Neversail), where recruits learned their first duties of seamanship. Advanced training schools were later added for military personnel learning specialized duties. After training hundreds of thousands of recruits, NTC was officially closed on April 30, 1997, and has since been transformed into San Diego's new and vibrant cultural center, Liberty Station.

Jennifer A. Garey is president of Arts & Antiquities, Inc., which provides consultations, collections management, and exhibitions for museums, corporations, and private collectors. Her professional museum experience spans over 25 years with institutions such as the San Diego Historical Society, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution. She has compiled here a brief pictorial history of the recruits, schools, and community, which grew and trained together in what was once the highlight of the U.S. Navy, the San Diego Naval Training Center.