United States Naval Training Center Bainbridge
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt personally approved the site, which was seized from the Tome School by Congressional order.
According to the Friday, September 17, 1954 football program, "The primary purpose of the Training Center is to aid young men and women entering the Navy in making the transition from civilian to sailor.
The degree to which this purpose is being fulfilled is silently being proclaimed regularly as the thousands of Bainbridge trainees step into Navy roles around the globe.
The center was activated on 1 October 1942, and the first batch of recruits arrived 10 days later to begin "boot camp" training.
Halfway through boot camp, recruits had a "service week", which generally included kitchen duty, peeling potatoes, mopping, picking up cigarette butts, etc.
One winter, recruits were sent to shovel snow off roads to a largely rural area near Colora and Rising Sun.
In mid-1950, with the advent of the Korean War crisis, plans were made to reactivate the center, and it was officially reopened on 1 February 1951, with Captain Robert Hall Smith in command.
The necessary renovations and road work were accomplished ahead of schedule, and the center reopened its gates for recruits on 5 April 1951.
The Navy deactivated the Center on 31 March 1976[3] and on the evening of 30 June 1976, Chief Petty Officer Stephen Kowalki locked the gates for the final time.
On 3 November 1986, the United States Congress authorized the Secretary of the Navy to dispose of Naval Training Center Bainbridge by sale to private parties or transfer to other government agencies.
NTCB is the federal facilities equivalent of a brownfield site; the Navy's primary goal was effective re-use of the former property by the State of Maryland and the people of Cecil County.
Congress specified that before any sale, the Secretary of the Navy was required to "restore such property to a condition that meets all applicable Federal and State of Maryland environmental protection regulations" (Public Law 99-956).
Tasks included base maintenance, physical security, fire protection, logistics, material procurement, medical care, religious services, transportation, and so on.
