Mountain Sailors

For the first time ever, the Navy is building a training station in the rough-&-tumble Rocky Mountains. The site: Bayview, Idaho, a quiet several-horse town at the southwest end of Lake Pend d'Oreille, some 45 miles northeast of Spokane. Last week, as the citizens of Bayview (pop. 104) stood by goggle-eyed, the first of 10,000 carpenters, masons and plumbers were busily at work on a $20,000,000 base.

In picking the place, Navy bigwigs showed the sea-wisdom of an old salt, the esthetic sense of a crackajack travel agent. Of glacial origin, Lake Pend d'Oreille is a favorite summer resort for the Northwest, is one of the largest U.S. fresh-water lakes (35 miles long, six to 15 miles wide). At either end, broad grass-lush prairies melt into smooth bathing beaches; on the east, steep cliffs stand sheer from the water, mount on up into the snowcapped Cabinet Mountains. The lake is fish-chocked: trout, land-locked salmon, whitefish. In summer, scores of pleasure boats, bright with paint, nose over it.

The Navy liked all this. But the decision to hitch a training hammock in Bayview was made for other reasons. The new base will supplement the huge Great Lakes Training Station, already jampacked with more than 30,000 future tars. Using an eight-week period, and with an initial capacity of 20,000, Bayview in August will start turning out some 130,000 sailors annually. Although the lake is large enough and deep enough for any Navy ship afloat, main equipment will be sturdy little "pulling boats" (whaleboat-type lifeboats).

To all "boots" (apprentice seamen), Bayview should be a dream base. After the working day, mountain sailors can stare at the view, take a swim, catch a fish, climb a mountain, climb a tree--or date a Western girl.

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