Head of Navy's Great Lakes boot camp relieved of duties over 'loss of confidence'

The Navy has relieved the head of the Great Lakes boot camp from his duties over "a loss of confidence in his ability to command," officials said.

The decision to reassign Capt. Jeffry Sandin to another staff role at the Naval Service Training Command headquarters near North Chicago had to do with job performance, said Cmdr. Brian Wierzbicki, a Navy spokesman.

"There were not disciplinary actions, no investigation, nothing criminal - nothing like that," Wierzbicki said Friday.

Wierzbicki didn't elaborate on what job performance issues led to Sandin's demotion.

Sandin, who has headed the Navy's boot camp since May 2021, is being replaced by Capt. Kertreck Brooks, the chief of staff at Great Lakes. The decision came down last Saturday from Rear Adm. Jennifer Couture, the Great Lakes commander who oversees the boot camp, officer candidate school and Navy ROTC program there.

It marks the fourth firing of a Navy commanding officer in about a week's time, after commanders of two destroyers and an air squadron were relieved of their duties. Navy officials similarly expressed "loss of confidence" to command in those cases.

At Great Lakes - the Navy's only boot camp - some 40,000 recruits train annually in a 10-week program that covers physical fitness, seamanship, firearms, firefighting and shipboard damage control, among other lessons.