Navy to Close Boot Camp First 3 Months of 1992

A higher reenlistment rate and a reduction in the number of recruits needed by the Navy have led to the suspension of boot camp at the Naval Training Center during the first three months of 1992, officials said Thursday.

The canceling of boot training was announced in San Diego by Navy officials, who took pains to explain that the scaling back in recruit training does not portend a shutdown of NTC.

The 546-acre training center will not accept any new recruits between November and March, Navy officials said. However, enlistees who are in boot camp through the end of October will continue their training at the center through Dec. 20.

Navy officials said the cutback in recruit training is prompted in part by an “unbelievable” reenlistment rate, which lessens the need for new recruits. The public affairs office of the 32nd Street Naval Station reported that first-time enlistees are reenlisting at a rate of 41% throughout the fleet. Second-time reenlistments are running 59%, and sailors who spend at least three tours in the Navy reenlist 72% of the time.

Overall, the Navy’s reenlistment rate was 54% last year, officials said. This contrasts with 38% in 1990 and 37% in 1989. Navy officials credit the slumping civilian economy for the increase in reenlistments.

The “rephasing” of recruit training at the NTC is also due in part to the Navy’s plans to reduce its manpower by 20,000 sailors in the coming year. The manpower reduction has forced the Navy to scale back its recruiting goal to 64,290 sailors through the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, 1992, officials said. This is in contrast to the 95,186 recruits signed by the Navy in 1989, they added.

“This rephasing is only a temporary measure to adjust for the unusually high retention . . . and to reduce the total number of personnel by 20,000 . . . without resorting to involuntary separations (from the Navy),” Lt. Cmdr. Janet Mescus said in a written statement from the Naval Training Center.

Another written statement released by officials from the 32nd Street Naval Station said the San Diego training center and the Navy’s two other recruit training centers in Orlando, Fla. and Great Lakes, Ill., near Chicago, will continue “operating at efficient rates during the high enlistment times in the spring and summer.”

However, the Great Lakes facility will also suspend recruit training between January and March. The Orlando training center will accept about 2,200 new recruits during November and December, and will continue training a limited number of sailors on nuclear-related jobs.

On Thursday, local Navy officials said they did not know how the reduced training schedule will affect the local economy. The training center’s operating budget is about $35 million, and its payroll is $296 million. However, they emphasized that the jobs of the 470 military and civilian staff members at the center’s recruit training facility will not be affected by the temporary suspension in training.

There are now 3,455 recruits and 616 sailors undergoing training at the center. Besides boot camp, the center also offers apprentice training for some recruits after they finish boot camp.

Local business leaders scoffed at the Navy’s explanation that suspension of training at the NTC was due in part to higher-than-normal reenlistment rates. They credited the easing of Cold War tensions, which has led the Pentagon to scale back the U.S. military dramatically over the coming years.

The planned cutbacks for the Navy are significant. The number of ships is expected to decline from an existing force of 545 to 414 by 1997.

It’s “the downsizing of the Navy, pure and simple,” said Lee Grissom, president of the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce. “ . . . I’m glad we fought as hard as we did last June to maintain the NTC and Marine Corps Recruit Depot. Because, if he hadn’t, we would now be probably witnessing the absolute closure of the NTC.”

Grissom maintained that San Diego could benefit from the smaller armed services.

“San Diego will become an ever-increasing slice of an ever-diminishing pie. The latest base closures actually resulted in the addition of 6,000 people in uniform, with the (movement of ships) from Long Beach and other actions,” he added.

Grissom also said that San Diego still has one drawing card that Orlando and Great Lakes lack.

“We’re the one that’s closest to the fleet. The Navy still says that fleet proximity is important,” Grissom said.

Times staff writer Greg Johnson contributed to this report.