Purdue University Naval ROTC midshipmen toured Recruit Training Command (RTC) and were invited to visit with commander, Naval Service Training Command (NSTC) and have lunch in his home, Jan. 26-27.

The midshipmen visited the Navy's only boot camp, and during the lunch had the opportunity to talk with Rear Adm. Stephen C. Evans, NSTC commander, about leadership in the Navy.

The tour of RTC provided the soon-to-be naval officers a chance to see firsthand the new Sailors they may command in the coming years.

Being able to bring some of the future naval officers to boot camp gives them a good sense of the Sailors they will be leading in the fleet," said Lt. Oscar Taylor, assistant professor of naval science and advisor at Purdue.

"It really humbles them because they get to see the training and struggles these new young enlisted men and women go through to earn what they earn -- to be called a Sailor in the Navy," Taylor said. "I think the fact they also get to see the joy on each of their faces and on the parent's faces at graduation really gives the midshipmen a sense of pride of the Sailors they one day will be leading."

The Boilermaker Battalion midshipmen attended the weekly pass-in-review graduation where more than 700 recruits graduated. At the weekly PIR, the midshipmen witnessed the transformation of civilians into recruits and recruits into the Sailors they may command on submarines, ships, at air wings, hospitals, and with special operations units.

"The graduation ceremony simultaneously reminded me of the change of command ceremonies and new student orientation graduations we have at Purdue, except on a much larger and impressive scale," said Midshipman 1st Class Gabby Feldman, from Cincinnati. "Remembering how proud I was to make it through our measly four days of 'boot camp,' I was extremely proud of and happy for all the recruits that graduated. I can't imagine how memorable that day must have been for them given all the hard work they put in."

Before attending the recruit PIR graduation, the midshipmen enjoyed a "Pizza Night" the evening before graduation with the recruits in the USS Arizona recruit ship barracks. All recruit barracks are named for past Navy ships and are set up like a ship with quarterdeck watches, classrooms, a galley, a dining facility, laundry facilities, and berthing compartments.

For many, the highlight of the visit was a tour of USS Trayer (BST 21) and Battle Stations 21 the next morning before the PIR. Trayer is a 210-foot-long Arleigh Burke-class destroyer simulator where recruits go through 12 hours of 17 grueling scenarios based on actual Navy mishaps, and is the capstone of all training received by the recruits. The scenarios simulate guided-missile frigate USS Stark (FFG 31) after the ship was hit by two Iraqi missiles in 1987, amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LPH 10) after the ship struck an Iraqi mine during Operation Desert Storm in February 1991, and the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole (DDG 67) suicide bomb attack by terrorists while refueling in the Yemeni port of Aden, Oct. 12, 2000.

"Besides the shear efficiency of the whole operation, I was most impressed with the morale of all the recruits -- even the ones far from graduation," said Feldman. "It looked as if boot camp had been challenging and extremely stressful at times, but the recruits still wanted to be there and were excited to keep going. I think that's a testament to the quality of training that the Navy is giving them, that they can push each recruit as much as they do and still maintain motivation and morale."

Officer Candidate and former enlisted Sailor Jeremy Ochs, from Olney, Illinois, was also excited to be back to boot camp.

"It's been an opportunity for me to see how the Navy has evolved in the training of recruits at boot camp," said Ochs, a former machinist's mate (nuclear) 1st class who graduated from boot camp in 2007. "It was great to be back and see the quality of Sailor I will be leading, and it gives me a chance to give back because I know how far each new Sailor [has come] and developed."

Following the PIR graduation in the Midway Ceremonial Drill Hall at RTC, the soon-to-be commissioned officers visited with Evans in his historic Quarters AA home onboard Naval Station Great Lakes.

They had lunch and sat down with the admiral to ask him leadership questions and listen to any advice he had about being a newly-commissioned officer.

"It's always a huge honor to get to meet with high-ranking officers such as Rear Admiral Evans, especially in such a relaxed setting," Feldman said. "Not only did he have countless years of leadership experience to share with us, but just hearing about why he loves his job and why he has stayed in the Navy so long gave me new faith in the institution we're all about to join."

Feldman also felt it was very important for NROTC units to have the chance to visit and tour RTC.

"I think it is extremely important for midshipmen to consistently have the opportunity to visit RTC and have the experience we did," she said. "I would go as far as to say that it should be a commissioning requirement of ROTC."

"Logistically this would be much harder to accommodate, but I think it is important for us to see where Sailors get their start -- where they transform from ordinary young adults into U.S. Navy Sailors," she added. "It will be divisions of them that we are responsible with leading when we first hit the fleet, and understanding what they went through to become a part of this Navy and the type of preliminary training they go through has a large impact on how we will lead them in the future."

The NROTC program develops midshipmen mentally, morally and physically, to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, loyalty, and Navy core values. The program provides college graduates an opportunity to commission as naval officers who possess a basic professional background, are motivated toward careers in the naval service, and have potential for future development in mind and character so as to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship, and government.

RTC is primarily responsible for conducting the initial Navy orientation and training of new recruits. The command is commonly referred to as boot camp or recruit training.

Boot camp is approximately eight weeks, and all enlistees into the United States Navy begin their careers at the command. Training includes physical fitness, seamanship, firearms familiarization, firefighting, and shipboard damage control, lessons in Navy heritage and core values, teamwork, and discipline. Since the closure of RTCs in Orlando and San Diego in 1994, RTC Great Lakes is the Navy's only basic training location, and is known as "The Quarterdeck of the Navy." Today, approximately 39,000 recruits graduate annually from RTC and begin their Navy careers.

Evans and his NSTC staff oversee 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy's Citizenship Development Program. NSTC includes RTC at Naval Station Great Lakes, NROTC units at more than 160 colleges and universities, Officer Training Command at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island, and Navy Junior ROTC and Navy National Defense Cadet Corps (NNDCC) citizenship development programs at more than 600 high schools worldwide.

For more information about NROTC, visit http://www.nrotc.navy.mil/.

For more news from Recruit Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/rtc/, www.bootcamp.navy.mil or www.facebook.com/NavyRecruitTrainingCommand/.

For more information, visit www.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/usnavy, or www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/, www.netc.navy.mil/nstc/ or www.facebook.com/NavalServiceTraining/.