Farragut Naval Training Station WWII

[mslurvey]

While researching my uncle's (John Lester Huber) military service in WWII I found out that he did his basic training at the Farragut Naval Training Station located in of all places Idaho. It turned out that the training site was the second largest in the country and only second to Great Lakes. I have posted below a short history of the training center from the Idaho Military Museum Web site. I also purchased a copy of the Farragut Naval Training Station history book and it has been a great addition to my bookcase. The director of the Museum and the author of the book was able to track down the class photo with my uncle in it and the class roster. Booth are attached below and my uncle is in the 4th row 8th recruit from the right.

 

Enjoy Mason

 

 

Farragut, Idaho
Where Fightin' Blue Jackets Were Made!

Nestled at the foot of the Coeur d'Alene Mountains in the Bitterroot Mountain Range and named for Admiral David Glassgow Farragut, a Civil War Naval Hero, Farragut, Idaho welcomed its first Naval recruits on 17 September 1942.
From then until 10 March 1945 when the last class graduated, Farragut was the second-largest U. S. naval training station in the world. It was also one of if not the largest employer in Idaho. During the 30 months it was operational, Farragut trained 293,381 recruits and over 25,000 service school attendees.

It was originally believed that 19 states sent Naval recruits to Farragut. It has since come to light that there were 24 (and counting!) They were Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

If you'd like to learn more about the former training station, we now have the following book in stock. Click the image to read the back of the book, click here to go to our gift shop's webpage to order a copy.

Makes a great gift for those who attended training there or if you are wondering what your loved one did while stationed there!

Now available!



Images of America; Farragut Naval Training Station

Written by Gayle Alvarez and Dennis Woolford, IMHS Board member and Farragut Park Ranger respectively, this book is a photo history of the Farragut Naval Training Station which was located in north Idaho and was operational from 1942-1946.

If you order your book from us, we will include a 4-page index of those named and pictured in the book.

12 September 2015 is the date for the 2015 Annual Farragut Veterans Reunion. It will be held at Farragut State Park. See flyer for preliminary details.





Farragut Veterans, we have a bit of a mystery on our hands. Several of the 1944 company photographs have a member of the company holding a shield or sign with a rooster on it. One of the shields reads, "Try And Take It!" so we are presuming that the rooster was something positive.

Here is a composite photograph of 4 such rooster shields and the company photograph the images came from. If you can solve the mystery of the rooster, please contact us.

[Navybean]

Farragut is great place to visit, it is quit a feeling to be there and to think about all the sailors that went through basic and A school there. Unfortunately there is not much left of the base, mainly foundations and the grinders. Besides the basic traing area of the base the USN had a submarine testing, training center on site as well on lake Pend Orielle and it is still there today. they still drive submarines in the lake. They use the submarines for sonar testing.

After the war the US Govt gave the base to Idaho state and they used it as a college for a couple of years. After a couple years as a college the state decommissioned the base and tore all of the buildings down.