Battle Stations Simulated at Great Lakes

Looming several stories high and stretching more than 200 feet, the Navy’s newest "destroyer" is, in fact, meant to turn uncertain recruits into confident sailors through a 12-hour simulation of the numbing tedium and spontaneous terror of life at sea.

The USS Trayer, a mockup created by civilian special-effects wizards, is the centerpiece of the $82 million Battle Stations 21, located at Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, home of the Navy’s only boot camp.

Battle Stations, which all recruits must pass to graduate, puts dog-tired sailors-to-be through 17 scenarios, everything from taking inventory of a storeroom and watching generator gauges to an early-morning missile attack and firefighting.

"The point of all the realism is … it gives them confidence to do it on their real ship," said Chief Petty Officer Tim McKinley, the top enlisted man on the project. "When bad things happen, they can [feel that] ‘I’m going to be able to take care of it.’"

Battle Stations 21, which will begin operating for real on Monday, has been undergoing its shakedown cruise for the past weeks. Recruits who have already gone through the old Battle Stations, now known as Legacy, are going through the new simulation so trainers can see how it works and what needs tweaking.

The new exercise features a full-size dummy of a guided-missile destroyer–at least the port (left) side–and a pier in a huge warehouse. Recruits walk out of a mock briefing and into a dock at night, complete with a huge pool of water and ambient surround-sound of humming engines, sea gulls, horns, lapping water and aircraft.

The ship is outfitted inside and out with salvaged gauges, pipes and electrical gear, and the stagecraft includes caulk beaded to look like welding and painted battleship gray. Inside, compartments are outfitted as replicas of berths, control rooms and the bridge.

"It’s so real that it stops me in my tracks," said Lt. Andrew Bond, who also works with the project. "If she had another side she’d be ready for sea."

The night is purposefully grueling. Recruits who have been up since 6 a.m. begin the simulation with a video briefing at about 7 p.m. The test will end at 7 a.m., but the young would-be sailors, who get water but no food during the night, will not knock off until they complete another full day of training.

The idea is "to test their tactical decision-making under stress," McKinley said. To maintain the "mystique," he said, no one who has been through it is allowed to talk about it under threat of disciplinary action, though the Navy granted the news media permission to document a training run.