Finding Copies of a Navy Boot Camp Book
Over the years, many of you have enquired about the United States Navy USNTC Boot Camp Graduation Books.
According the Recruit Training Command, the longer the time after the publication of a yearbook, the less likely you are to be able to obtain a copy. Recruit Training Command contracts with a publisher for a certain number of copies based on the size of the recruit division and pre-sale of the yearbook. The only way to obtain a copy of a yearbook is to find someone who was in your recruit division and buy it from him/her.
Comprehensive List of Sites Having USNTC Books
Naval History and Heritage Command
Naval Training and Education Yearbooks in the Navy Department Library
Browse by Location:
- Bainbridge, MD Compass (Naval Training Center) 41 Books
- Great Lakes, IL The Keel (United States Naval Training Center) 228 Books
- Orlando, FL Rudder (Recruit Training Command, Naval Training Center) 31 Books
- San Diego, CA The Anchor (US Naval Training Center) 58 Books
- 1953 - Companies 46, 47, 55,127, 2012
- 1954 - Company 197
- 1955 - Company 324
- 1956 - Companies 392, 509
- 1957 - Company 548
- 1958 - Companies 109, 512
- 1959 - Companies 168, 408
- 1960 - Companies 137, 191, unidentified
- 1961 - Companies 228, 230, 232
- 1962 - Company 298
- 1963 - Companies 181, 242, 286, 523
- 1964 - Companies 39, 79, 205
- 1965 - Companies 300, 306, 307, 910
- 1966 - Companies 32, 291, 710
- 1967 - Company 634
- 1968 - Recruit Brigade Review, 12 July 1968
- 1969 - Companies 328, 523
- 1970 - Company 68
- 1971 - Companies 916, Drum & Bugle
- 1972 - Companies 268, 319
- 1973 - Companies 124, 149, 248
- 1974 - Companies 167, 235
- 1975 - Company 922
- 1976 - Companies 185, 326
- 1978 - Company 197
- 1979 - Company 072
- 1981 - Companies 63, 273
- 1982 - Company 34
- 1984 - Company 920
- 1985 - Company 136
- 1951 - Companies 1-2, 3-4, 201-202, 333-334
- 1952 - Companies 39-40, 256, 257
- 1953 - Companies 162, 167, 336, 339
- 1954 - Companies 43, 182, 265, 266, 320
- 1955 - Companies 4, 61, 69, 122, 300
- 1956 - Companies 80, 107, 111, 216, 227
- 1957 - Companies 61, 70
- 1958 - Companies 12, 27, 31-32, 33-34
- 1959 - Companies 13-14
- 1951 - Company 168
- 1948 - Companies 1-99, 166, 230-283, 359, 413, 427, 451, 456, 640
- 1949 - Company 273
- 1951 - Companies 29-30, 73-74, 201-202, 575, 633, 715, 744, 925
- 1954 - Companies 55, 78
- 1955 - Company 317, 580
- 1956 - Companies 511, 64, 425
- 1957 - Companies 252, 260, 294, 429
- 1958 - Generic (no specific company), Company 366
- 1959 - Companies 86, 170, 263, 381, 491
- 1960 - Generic, no specific company
- 1961 - Companies 76, 87, 5903
- 1962 - Company 492
- 1963 - Company 230
- 1964 - Companies 101, 493
- 1965 - Company 379, 580
- 1966 - Companies 8, 377, 385, 424, 432, 731, 5930
- 1967 - Companies 2, 208, 273, 561
- 1968 - Companies 207, 400, 666
- 1969 - Company 465
- 1970 - Company 251
- 1971 - Companies 52, 117, 147
- 1972 - Company 088
- 1973 - Company 130
- 1974 - Companies 045, 75, 186, 415
- 1975 - Company 240
- 1976 - Company 229
- 1977 - Company 936
- 1978 - Company 918
- 1982 - Generic, no specific company
- 1985 - Company 907
- 1995 - Generic, no specific company
- Unidentified year - Company 250
- 1918
- 1954 - Companies 2, 26, 147, 148, 151, 152
- 1955 - Companies 1, 11, 29, 30, 32
- 1956 - Companies 16, 24, 27, 28, 31
- 1961 - Companies 5-6, 15-16, 17-18, 19-20, 26-
28, 40-41
- 1970 - Companies 56, 153
- 1971 - Companies 073, 185
- 1972 - Companies 064, 120, 128
- 1974 - Company 029
- 1977 - Training Units 196, 360
- 1978 - Training Units 101, 216
- 1980 - Training Unit 3018
- 1981 - Training Units K108, 155, 3030
- 1984 - Company C210
- 1985 - Companies C027, C091, C224
- 1986 - Companies C040, C058, 102, 132, 189
- 1987 - Companies 191, 239
- 1988 - Companies 011, 040, 216
- 1992 - Company I032
- 1953 - Companies 113, 114
- Company A, Women's Reserve Overseas Unit, Volume I
- Company C, Overseas Unit, Volume II
- Company E, WAVE Detachment, Overseas Unit, 1945
- Company F, WAVE Detachment, Overseas Unit, 1945
- Company J, Overseas Unit 12th Naval District, 1947
Last Updated 2022-12-10
Recruit Training Command: The Navy’s Only Bootcamp
https://www.bootcamp.navy.mil/faq.html
- Q. I was in boot camp in the early 60’s. Is it possible to receive a copy of The Keel from my time onboard Recruit Training Command?
- A. The longer the time after the publication of a yearbook, the less likely you are to be able to obtain a copy. Recruit Training Command contracts with a publisher for a certain number of copies based on the size of the recruit division and pre-sale of the yearbook. The only way to obtain a copy of a yearbook is to find someone who was in your recruit division and buy it from him/her. Please do not e-mail asking for copies of The Keel or the name of the publisher. If it has been longer than a year since your graduation, you will not be able to buy a copy of The Keel from the publisher.
U.S. Navy Recruit Training Command:
https://www.bootcamp.navy.mil/
Please use this platform also to find potential copies of your lost yearbook:
eBay:
A number of graduation books are sold via eBay. To facilitate your search on eBay, we have listed below the different search options which will give you the best results:
- naval training center -matchbook -postcard -patch -coin
- the Rudder yearbook
- the Rudder navy
- Orlando Rudder
- the Anchor yearbook
- the Anchor San Diego
- the Keel great lakes
- the keel yearbook
- the Compass yearbook
- the Compass Bainbridge
- the Compass naval
- the Compass Bainbridge
As sellers are not uniform on what they call the book, it is best to work with a more generic search terms. Setting up a search, include descriptions for Keel Great Lakes or Anchor San Diego or Keel navy book or Anchor navy book.
NavyVets.com
Navy Veterans: A Social Network for Navy Veterans of the United States of America. Blog posting: The Anchor Yearbook - Read the comments by:
- Reunion Rudders RTC Orlando (2017-05-24)
- Jon Yim, JO1 (retired) provides a great explanation of the yearbook process and history.
While the post focus was Orlando, the responses from the two postings listed above could be applied to Great Lakes, San Diego, Bainbridge, and Newport. (Page Removed from site)
Setting Up a Google Alert
Google Alerts are emails sent to you when Google finds new results -- such as web pages, newspaper articles, or blogs -- that match your search term.
You can use Google Alerts to monitor anything on the Web. We recommend that you set up a broad-based query keyword such as 1951 Navy Keel Book or US Navy Graduation Book Company 343.
If you start receiving too many results that are not relevant, add more words to your queries such as 1951 Navy Keel Book Great Lakes Company 343. One final note is that these books do not have a common name that everyone uses to refer to them. With that in mind, it is best not to insert queries within quotes.
Other options Include:
- Local Genealogical Society Libraries
- Biblio.com and other Used Book Stores, Online and Brick & Mortar Store
- Public Libraries
- Remember you can use inter-library loan services for intra and interstate book loans
- Colleges and Universities (Unlikely but not beyond the realm of possibility)
- Military memorabilia dealers
- Local auctions
Contact you fellow sailors that you went to boot camp with. They are often your best source for a scanned copy.
We hope that this comprehensive list assists you in your search to replace your boot camp book. Unfortunately, we lack the resources to assist you directly with your search.
- Q: I was wondering why you don't have all the U.S. Navy "The Anchor" annuals? I went through boot camp beginning on Jan 12, 1978 but can't find any record of it on your site.
- A: Not quite sure what you're referring to when you say "annuals" such as 1980 Anchor Yearbook presumably has all of the recruits who graduated during 1980. Not to be confused about all the different company yearbooks that graduated in 1980, such as company 008 from 1980. Although we have an extensive collection of the company yearbooks, they are nowhere near complete. Just from 1946 through 2020 (75 Years), assuming there were about 600 companies per year would be 45,000 Books — for Great Lakes. It was operational 1923-1997 (74 years) for San Diego, so covering San Diego during the years it operated would add another 45,000 books. Add another 30,000 books covering Orlando. Just with these three Naval Training Centers, we would be looking somewhere in the neighborhood of 120,000 volumes of books.
Let us say we could purchase all of them for an average cost of $50 each. That would come up to about $6 million. On top of this, there is storage, insurance, cost of scanning, and transcribing each book. I think you can envision how massive this would be in terms of resources to have a complete collection.
That being said, we rely almost entirely on the generosity of sailors and their families to donate books or high-resolutions of the books. That's why it is completely hit or miss on whether we have your graduation book or not.
USNTC - Historical Articles - Boot Camp Life, Training, Procedures, Etc.
GG Archives
Boot Camp Articles
- Bainbridge NTC History
- Competitive Flags
- Great Lakes NTC History
- Navy Boot Camp Company Commander
- Replacement Boot Camp Yearbooks
- Types of Recruit Companies
- The Story of WAVES Recruit Training
NTC/RTC Boot Camp Yearbook Sections
- Navy Boot Camp and "A" School Articles
- Navy Boot Camp Yearbooks Bainbridge (The Compass)
- Navy Boot Camp Yearbooks Great Lakes (The Keel)
- Navy Boot Camp Yearbooks Newport (The Helm)
- Navy Boot Camp Yearbooks Orlando (The Rudder)
- Navy Boot Camp Yearbooks San Diego (The Anchor)
- Browse Boot Camp Books by Year
- NTC Large Format Group Photos
- Boot Camp Books Wanted Queries
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The Folks Behind the GG Archives
The GG Archives is the work and passion of two people, Paul Gjenvick, a professional archivist, and Evelyne Gjenvick, a curator. Paul earned a Masters of Archival Studies - a terminal degree from Clayton State University in Georgia, where he studied under renowned archivist Richard Pearce-Moses. Our research into the RMS Laconia and SS Bergensfjord, the ships that brought two members of the Gjønvik family from Norway to the United States in the early 20th century, has helped us design our site for other genealogists. The extent of original materials at the GG Archives can be very beneficial when researching your family's migration from Europe.