When Seaman Recruit (SR) Antonio Brown, SR Christina Ferrer and SR Shaina Moore answered the call to service by joining the Navy, they also answered the call of God and were baptized March 26, while in boot camp at Recruit Training Command (RTC), Great Lakes.

Joining them were SR Amanda Becerra, SR Jonathon Ingles, and SR Jonathan Jenkins who served as witnesses as well as participants in a rededication ceremony making a public declaration of their own faith.

"In the first part of boot camp, when things are so new and there's a lot of anxiety, the majority of the time, church is a place they seek," said Lt. Chad Haan, chaplain, RTC. "The same thing that is true in boot camp is true in the rest of our lives - times of intense stress and struggle cause us to look to things and places that perhaps we haven't looked to in the past. God becomes something that Recruits look for."

Haan has baptized about 100 recruits and received about 25 public declarations of faith in the past year during approximately 35 ceremonies held in the Chapel.

While some of the recruits receive baptism by full immersion in the approximately 300-gallon baptistery tank, recruits who have already been baptized participate in a different rite.

"For those who have been baptized either as an infant or as a younger child or just a few years ago in high school, then I will afford them the opportunity to make a public profession of their faith which is very similar theologically to what is going on in baptism," said Haan.

For Ferrer, of Knoxville, Tennissee, she led life differently prior to boot camp where she found her faith while attending Sunday morning services at the chapel.

"Baptism to me is renewing my vows with Christ. Going after God instead of focusing on my failures or anything like that has really helped me through boot camp," said Ferrer. "There are a lot of recruits who are Christian and we would hold a bible study at times in our compartment. Everyone tries to be supportive of anyone's faith because we're all trying to get through this together."

Haan explains many recruits have been raised in a Christian home of some sort and now decide they need to take their faith more seriously.

"Some recruits who were raised as Christians but began questioning their faith as they got older haven't necessary lost their faith, but often they think that they don't know where God is, or they're not hearing from God, and for some reason God is silent and shutting them out," said Haan.

He likens that with the analogy of parents who run behind a child teaching them to ride a bicycle before eventually letting go of the seat allowing the child to ride on their own.

"They let go and you didn't realize they were no longer holding on to you. God has to let us go as well and allow us to wobble on our own for a little bit," said Haan. "In boot camp, we build up your muscles by making recruits go through physical fitness training, likewise there's also a period of spiritual strain and struggle that results in growth."

While Haan will baptize any recruit who desires so, he requires them to take an Alpha class, an evangelistic course which seeks to introduce the basics of the Christian faith through a series of talks and discussions.

"My faith tradition requires some sort of vetting for people who want to come to faith. It's not that we want to prevent someone to come to faith; however we want to know that it's real. We want to make sure they have some sort of understanding of what they are doing from a biblical perspective," he said.

The baptism process for the recruits includes a 45-minute meeting with Haan as he explains what the ceremony means personally for them and some of the things they need to continue to do in order to stay strong in their faith.

Haan holds the public profession of faith ceremony prior to those receiving baptism by immersion as they state their conviction in front of the others. This is followed by the other recruits changing into robes and standing along the baptistery tank where they are baptized individually.

One by one Haan assists them into the water, asks them to state their full name and their belief in Christ and then plunges them backward into the water and back up again. After everyone has been baptized, he has them sit alongside the tub to discuss and summarize what they just experienced.

"I knew coming into boot camp I needed to change my heart as I had strayed away from church. I just had a child and I knew I couldn't do the things the way I used to," said Brown, of Virginia Beach, Virgina. "I started attending church here and the lord spoke to me. I've never been baptized so I knew I wanted to do so here. Faith has helped me get through boot camp. Prayer goes a long way because now I don't worry so much as I put my faith in God."

While Becerra, of Philadelphia, is a Christian and was baptized as a Catholic as a child, she didn't follow faith nor associate herself with one church.

"I don't really connect myself with a specific church. I am a Christian, I believe in God," she said. "This is a way to keep God with me every day and I continue to do this because I feel that during boot camp he was the only one that was there to support me whenever I needed him."

Each recruit receives a baptismal certificate signed by Haan along with the other recruits who were present.

"The other recruits sign each other's certificates because they're witnesses to the event. That's a big part of it, this public profession, and having other people be a part of that," said Haan. "In boot camp, they are torn away from all the structures they have had such as friends from church, school and family, and they're in a place where they have to make all the decisions for themselves."

Becerra realizes that while she does have support from home, it was her faith that pulled her through so she could graduate from RTC.

"My faith in God, praying every day during the good times and the bad, reading daily scriptures every day, and being able to talk to the chaplain is what got me through boot camp," said Becerra. "I probably would not be graduating on time if I didn't have my faith or the services that RTC gives us like the chaplain and chapel services and the right to attend service. I would not be out of here tomorrow with my division if it wasn't for my faith and the services they gave to me and offered me."

While Recruit Memorial Chapel on base cannot offer services for all the faith traditions represented by Recruits who come to Recruit Training Command, all Recruits are welcome at the chapel and are served by the chaplains on staff. At the present time chaplain-led services include a Seventh-day Adventist and Jewish Shabbat Service on Friday evenings and the following services on Sunday mornings: Eastern Orthodox, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Contemporary Christian, Roman Catholic Mass, and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

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, today, the Navy's only basic training location, and is known as "The Quarterdeck of the Navy." Today, approximately 38,000 recruits graduate annually from RTC and begin their Navy careers.

RTC is overseen by Rear Adm. Rich A. Brown, commander, Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), headquartered in Building 1; the historic clock tower building on Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill. NSTC oversees 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy. NSTC also oversees the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) at more than 160 colleges and universities, Officer Training Command at Naval Station Newport, R.I., and Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) and Navy National Defense Cadet Corps (NNDCC) citizenship development programs at more than 600 high schools worldwide.

Learn more at http://bootcamp.navy.mil or find us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/NavyRecruitTrainingCommand/.

For more information about NSTC, visit http://www.netc.navy.mil/nstc/ or visit the NSTC
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