The cache is approachable by land, sea, and air. This cache is on the grounds of the old Naval Training Center, former home for all west coast US Navy enlisted recruit training. Within sight of the cache is the “USS RECRUIT”, a landlocked vessel built in 1949 and used by NTC to familiarize recruits with what it was like to be aboard a ship. You know...how to swab the decks, how to yell “Gangway! Lady with a baby!”, and the fine art of cursing. All the minimum requirements necessary before being allowed onto an actual ship. NTC was BRACed in 1993 and officially closed on 30 April 1997. It is now being turned into Liberty Station. As the city of San Diego puts it, “New homes, parks, businesses, as well as cultural and educational facilities will transform the former Navy base into a vital waterfront community.” Most of the buildings have been or are being demolished but the grey hulk of the USS Recruit is still there, dredging up melancholy memories for 70 year's worth of Squids. Current plans are to preserve it in place. The Navy, with the help of the wisdom of Congress, now does all its recruit training at that bastion of oceanic splendor, Naval Station Great Lakes, just 30 miles north of Chicago, and about 1000 miles from the nearest ocean. If you have knowledge of stories of the USS Recruit please post them in your log. If you want to make some up, that’s OK too. New buildings have almost masked the USS Recruit but it can still be seen from the cache site if you know what you're looking for. If you look in the opposite direction from the ship, you can see the still active home of west coast training for US Marine Corps male enlisted recruits, the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. We recommend that you visit there at your earliest opportunity. They have a fine museum. Friday mornings are usually reserved for recruit graduations on the awe-inspiring, half-mile long parade deck (now slightly shorter as the ends are devoted to parking lots). If you haven’t seen a graduation there you will be truly impressed. If you have seen one, it’s time to see another. MCRD is also jam-packed with registered historic buildings that are kept in immaculate condition. And you can walk under the same arch that Gomer Pyle did every week in the opening credits of his TV show. (Look for the large Marine Corps emblem above the arch near the flagpole.) Civilian visitors are always welcome at this showplace of the Marine Corps. The container at one time was a matchstick holder but see update at the bottom. If you want to leave something...might as well go elsewhere. And please bring your own writing instrument. Thanks. Nearby terrain is almost all flat but unpaved. To get to the cache itself you'll have to walk on the inclined rocky bank for a few steps.
Remember Geocache Etiquette 1. Don’t leave blank space in the logbook. Use all available white space, including the back of each page. Use a line to separate your entry from the one above it. 2. Reseal the container tightly to keep out moisture. 3. Rehide carefully.
**** 8 July 2007 Update **** Liberty Station has finally opened the new park and parking is within 166 feet. The cache was in a 23 month hibernation but things are in perfect condition now. The natural camouflage is no longer there so we've moved the cache about 50 feet. Since we hate caches in rocks as much as anyone, we've included some additional helpful information.
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**** 21 January 2009 Update **** We've placed the cache in another new spot, for the third or fourth time. Since we hate caches in rocks (or chunks of concrete) here are some additional directions: Get close to the coordinates and look west. Find the old Child Care Center and the ladder attached to it. Line yourself up perpendicular to the wall and that ladder. Then look for an old concrete column in line with the ladder, lying on the ground, just downslope from and parallel to the dirt path. The cache should be under that concrete column. For all we know there may still be two other of our previously placed USS Recruit caches still hidden in the immediate area. Feel free to sign any or all of them.
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**** 11 March 2009 Update **** The last cache container only lasted a couple of weeks so now we've replaced it with a micro. You're looking for a dark green, plastic match holder. It's behind a small piece of concrete in the place described on 21 Jan 2009. Please place a rock or piece of concrete in front of the cache because now we suspect that one of the many squirrels or rats in the area may have confiscated the last three caches that were here. If this one disappears we'll switch over to a metal container. Oh yeah, when we were at NTC today we talked to Huell Howser. He was here taping one of his shows which will focus on the redevelopment that has turned NTC into Liberty Station. Huell was in Marine Corps boot camp next door at MCRD in 1972.
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**** 19 June 2011 Update **** The column seems to have been kicked downhill toward the water so try these new instructions: Line yourself up with the ladder; drop down below the edge of the walking path, about five feet or so, among the detritus; look for a couple of small pieces of concrete or rock that could be hiding a cave for a match holder. That's where it was today. Good luck.
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**** 8 July 2012 Update **** Line up with the ladder and drop down over the edge of the pathway. In the first bunch of junk look for an alcove hidden by a piece or two of detritus. The container should be tucked in there. Repeat endlessly, "I will be successful"!
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**** 5 September 2016 Update **** Cache container replaced with a small metal tin. You should bring your own writing device. It is almost opposite the ladder, maybe slightly to the right, and under the top level slab.
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**** 3 June 2018 Update **** Cache container replaced with a small metal flashlight container. You should bring your own writing device. It is almost opposite the ladder, maybe slightly to the left, under the top level, behind a chunk of concrete.
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**** 20 July 2018 Update **** Cache container replaced with a bison tube. You should bring your own writing device. It is almost opposite the ladder, slightly to the right, zip-tied to a lower branch of a large bush is nothing. The search could be "draining".
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**** 31 May 2022 Update **** Cache container is still a bison tube. You should bring your own writing device. The search could still be "draining".
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**** 31 August 2023 Update **** The vegetation has been seriously whacked around here and the plumbing has been compromised. The geocache container has been switched to a nano container and moved over to the fence at the corner of the building, and it's now magnetic. You should bring your own writing device.
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**** 23 May 2024 Update **** The Nano container seems to have disappeared so it's been replaced by a bison tube still magnetically attached to the fence at the corner of the building. You should still bring your own writing device.
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**** 26 March 2025 Update **** A clear-thinking individual heard that a Cybertruck was parked in the old Child Care Center. The very idea was so life-threatening that they burned the building down. That arsonist also agrees now that Global Warming isn't such a bad thing after all. The previous container or two are present as of this writing but who knows how long the temporary fence surrounding the burn site will be in place? For that reason we've placed a new, temporary replacement in a nearby spot. This one's a camouflage bison tube so you should still bring your own writing device. Find the light pole, west side, shin high, zip-tied to a lower branch of the bottlebrush bush.
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