Naval Station Great Lakes is in the news because the Pentagon approved using parts of the base to house Department of Homeland Security immigration enforcement operations ordered by the Trump administration. The sprawling base in Lake County could also be used to house National Guard members or active-duty soldiers if Trump orders troops to Chicago.
Here’s what to know about the naval base.
Where is Naval Station Great Lakes ?
Great Lakes Naval Station is just south of North Chicago. The base hugs the Lake Michigan shore and spreads west over 1,600 acres of land. The base has 1,153 buildings with 39 on the National Register of Historic Places. The base is used by the Navy, Marines and other civilian Defense department employees. The Veterans Administration Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center is at Great Lakes Naval Station. It is the Navy’s largest training station and the largest military installation in the state.
How does the military use the Naval Station Great Lakes?
Naval Station Great Lakes is the Navy’s only boot camp, transforming recruits into sailors. President Theodore Roosevelt approved building the base. Construction started in 1904. The base opened on July 1, 1911. On Oct. 28, 1911, President William Howard Taft was at the base to review the new sailors in the first graduation class.
In 1993, Naval Training Centers in Orlando, San Diego and Great Lakes were consolidated with Great Lakes becoming the sole location for basic training of Navy recruits
The sign at an entryway calls the base “The Quarterdeck of the Navy.”
How is federal law enforcement using the Naval Station Great Lakes?
Federal agents will be using office space at the base to establish a command center for the 230-agent operation, according to sources familiar with base operations. Per the initial plans obtained by the Sun-Times through emails to base officials, they would be given control of Building 617, which houses the Navy College Learning Center and the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Library.
The base will also serve as a parking lot for the 140 unmarked vehicles used for the blitz, sources previously told the Sun-Times. Federal agents are set to leave the base by 5 a.m. every day so as not to interfere with base operations.
The Defense Department’s request for assistance asked for three nearly 2,400 cubic-foot capacity storage containers for medical supplies and “less lethal munitions,” according to a spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
For months, about 30 to 40 ICE agents have been practicing riot control tactics at the military installation, using flash-bang grenades and marching in phalanxes with shields, which has continued as more agents arrived last weekend, another source familiar with base operations told the Sun-Times.