Naval Station Great Lakes

Camp Robert Smalls was a United States Naval training facility, created pursuant to an order signed April 21, 1942 by Frank Knox, then Secretary of the Navy, for the purpose of training African-American seamen at a time when the USN was still segregated by race.The camp was located inside the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois and named for Robert Smalls, a black naval hero of the American Civil War. The camp's first commander was Lieutenant Commander Daniel Armstrong, whose father had founded the Hampton Institute and had "brought him up to understand race problems." The Navy began enlisting Negro seamen on June 1, 1942, and the first class of 277 enlistees began training at Camp Robert Smalls later that month. Of that class, 222 completed the training successfully on September 3, 1942. 102 of those graduates were chosen to continue with specialized training, and the rest of the class was assigned to routine duties.The first classes of men to be trained at the camp had "no hope of being commissioned." However, the Navy began training officer candidates at Camp Robert Smalls towards the end of 1943.Robert Smalls's great-grandson, Edward Estes Davidson, trained at Camp Robert Smalls, as did Owen Dodson, Larry Doby, Clark Terry, and Charles Sebree.

The Great Lakes station is one of two commuter railroad stations in North Chicago, Illinois, served by Metra's Union Pacific North Line. The station (officially located at 3000 South Sheridan Road) is 32.2 miles (51.8 km) away from Ogilvie Transportation Center, the inbound terminus of the Union Pacific North Line, and also serves commuters who travel north to Kenosha, Wisconsin. In Metra's zone-based fare system, Great Lakes is in zone G. As of 2018, Great Lakes is the 153rd busiest of Metra's 236 non-downtown stations, with an average of 262 weekday boardings.It is named for the Great Lakes Naval Training Base in the City of North Chicago. As of April 25, 2022, Great Lakes is served by 23 trains in each direction on weekdays, by 12 inbound trains and all 13 outbound trains on Saturdays, and by all nine trains in each direction on Sundays. Like North Chicago station, Great Lakes serves as a stop for the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. However, unlike North Chicago station, the Naval training center surrounds much of Great Lakes station, which is also located near the Shore Acres Country Club. The connection to the Pace bus system has a boarding location near the main entrance to the naval station, it is also a location for taxi pick ups, and drop offs. Parking is available at the end of Ohio Avenue which leads from the southern terminus of the Bobby E. Thompson Expressway.

Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes (RTC Great Lakes), is a unit within the United States Navy primarily responsible for conducting the initial orientation and indoctrination of incoming recruits, also known as boot camp and recruit training, or RTC. It is part of Naval Service Training Command. It is a tenant command of Naval Station Great Lakes in the city of North Chicago, Illinois, in Lake County, north of Chicago. Called "The Quarterdeck of the Navy" since it opened in July 1911, RTC Great Lakes has been the service's only enlisted basic training location since 1994, when the Recruit Training Command in Orlando, Florida, was closed under the BRAC process. The similar RTC San Diego, California, was closed the previous year. All enlistees into the U.S. Navy begin their service at RTC Great Lakes with at least eight weeks of training, and more if they do not pass certain tests. Upon completion of basic training, qualifying sailors are sent to various apprenticeship, or "A schools", located across the United States for training in their occupational speciality, or ratings. Those who have not yet received a specific rating enter the fleet with a general designation of airman, fireman, construction man or seaman.

The Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (FHCC), opened on October 1, 2010, and is the United States' first federal health care center that partners the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense into a single, fully integrated federal health care facility.

The Dewey House, also referred to as Building 29, North Chicago VA Medical Center, is a historic building at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago, Illinois. Designed by David Adler, the Georgian Revival mansion was commissioned by future United States Representative Charles S. Dewey.

North Chicago is a city in Lake County, Illinois, United States, and a suburb of the Chicago metropolitan area. The population was 30,759 at the 2020 census making it the 2nd largest city by population in the county, after Waukegan. North Chicago is home to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center and Great Lakes Barracks Military housing. The city is also home to Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, which houses the Chicago Medical School, the Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine, the College of Pharmacy, the College of Health Professions, and the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. North Chicago in the past was an important center of industry, and that past is reflected within the landscape as the area is still heavily industrialized today.

The Chicago Medical School (CMS) is a medical school located in North Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is one of the graduate schools of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (RFUMS). It was founded in 1912 and obtained approval from the American Medical Association in 1948.

Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (RFU) is a private graduate school in North Chicago, Illinois. It has more than 2,000 students in five schools: Chicago Medical School, College of Health Professions, College of Pharmacy, Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine, and School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. The university is named for famous DNA crystallographer Rosalind Franklin. Photo 51, an X-ray diffraction pattern of the B form of DNA, captured by Franklin in 1952, was pivotal in 20th-century history of biology. The image is depicted in the university's seal and logo. RFU offers more than 29 study programs in graduate health-related subjects, including PhD programs for medical and basic research. Its facilities include a new innovation and research building (opening fall 2019) designed to promote collaboration among academic and industry scientists and Helix 51, the first bioscience incubator in Lake County, Illinois.

Naval Medical Research Unit Four (NAMRU-4) was a research laboratory of the US Navy which was commissioned 31 May 1946 at the Naval Hospital in Dublin, Georgia as the Mcintire Research Unit for Rheumatic Fever, which was named for the Surgeon General of the United States Navy Ross T. Mcintire. Initial staffing was 4 physicians, 4 laboratory technicians and 4 laboratory helpers under the command of LCDR John R. Seal. Eighteen months after commissioning the Navy transferred Dublin Naval Hospital to the Veterans Affairs system and the Secretary of the Navy re-established NAMRU-4 at Great Lakes Naval Base on the grounds of the Naval Hospital to study acute respiratory diseases in military personnel with a focus on their prevention. Lieutenant Commander Seal remained the Officer in Charge. The location at Great Lakes made it ideal as this was a large recruit training command with members arriving from all over the United States and being housed in military barracks and therefore would be expected to experience outbreaks of respiratory illness periodically. Diseases studied included: Neisseria meningitidis Adenoviruses Influenza Mycoplasma Streptococcus and rheumatic feverIn 1954 NAMRU-4 would be the first microbiology lab to ever isolate influenza virus in tissue culture. In the same year they would be the first lab to ever identify influenza B virus. NAMRU-4 was disestablished in 1974.

North Chicago School District 187 is an Illinois school district headquartered in the Lake County city of North Chicago.

Holy Family Church is a historic church at 1840 Lincoln Street in North Chicago, Illinois. The church was built in 1914-15 for North Chicago's Roman Catholic congregation, which was formed in 1901. Architect William F. Gubbins designed the Late Gothic Revival church. The church's design includes a front-facing gable with a large stained glass window, pointed arch windows, and a square bell tower with large louvered windows, all typical features of Gothic Revival architecture. The Catholic congregation used the church until 1991; it is now occupied by the Emmanuel Faith Bible Christian Center.The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 21, 2003.

North Chicago Community High School, also known as North Chicago and NCCHS, is a public four-year high school located in North Chicago, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, in the United States. It is part of North Chicago School District 187. Due to its proximity to the Naval Station Great Lakes, the school serves military families, resulting in a slightly higher than average mobility rate.