Battle Stations Plankowners

This page is dedicated to the original members (Plankowners) of the US Navy's Recruit Training Command Battle Stations Project. The project was designed on short notice and with no budget launched in 1997.

10 years later in 1997 Battle Stations 21, a major upgrade to the project was launched. The USS Trayer (BST-21) is a 3/4-scale, 210 feet long mockup of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer enclos

ed within a 157,000-square-foot building on board RTC. The trainer uses Hollywood-style special effects to create challenging and realistic training scenarios for recruits. The core purpose of the program and some of the original scenarios still remain where Recruit divisions work through a 12-hour Battle Stations 21 experience as a comprehensive test of the skills and teamwork learned during their eight weeks of basic training at RTC. When the program started the 16 original Facilitators were tasked with running (double timing) up to four 88 person divisions per night to different facilities at the command where the scenarios were to be conducted. The program kicked off with 6 Scenarios in place and despite the brutally cold winters in the region, MEDCOM allowed them to continue the double timing of teams down to temperatures of 35 below zero.