For nearly 140 recruits at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes, Illinois, embarking on their eight-week odyssey to become sailors, April 7 was just another day of gear issue before training starts next week.

But with their seabags, these 137 sailors-in-training were handed tablet computers — a first in the Navy.

The smart device will be their constant companion throughout training at Great Lakes. And though they'll leave them behind when they graduate, this test program is expected to pave the way for the service to add a tablet fleetwide.

But what's just another gear issue to recruits is much bigger in the eyes of Navy officials.

Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (AW/NAC) Mike Stevens and Rear Adm. Richard Brown, who heads Naval Service Training Command, helped hand out the tablets to the recruits .

"I really believe that in a few years, we'll look back at today as a watershed moment in the Navy," Stevens said in a phone interview April 7. "This isn't a nice to have item, as many believe. This is absolutely necessary to our Navy and our sailors in making them a more capable 21st century warfighter."

The "eSailor" effort was dreamed up by Stevens nearly two years ago as a way to improve sailors' access to computers and the Internet. This includes all the online sites and data centers the Navy requires sailors to access to manage their careers.

Eliminating the waiting lines to use a computer at sea is just one of the end goals . Taking training to the next level is another. Issuing tablets to sailors is still a ways away, as officials work through security issues and infrastructure changes, but Stevens says wider smart device usage on the job is only a matter of time .

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"We simply can't afford not to move in this direction," he said. "There's still a lot of things to work out as we move ahead, but we'll manage those things as we go."

Still to be worked out at recruit training as well as "A" schools is the Wi-Fi access at ships and commands.

"NSTC has been working on this for about eight months now and their concerns about heading down this road were the same as mine when we started," Steven said. "Their concerns in taking this on were the same as mine when we started but we'll figure it out as we go and we are -- many corporations have already gone down this path successfully -- there's no reason the Navy can't learn from them, too."

Smart devices are all over the Navy these days. Just take a walk around the weather decks of a Navy ship as it pulls in or out of port and you'll see sailors on their phones and tablets.

Other formal efforts to use tablets and Wi-Fi have sprung up around the fleet and even at "A" schools. The joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal School at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is already stretching the technology in its advanced training and operations.

"All this has many already looking down the line and how we'll integrate these into "A" schools," Stevens said. "That's the next step, but we can't get ahead of ourselves, yet."

The types of tablets

At Great Lakes, the tests are focused on integrating the tablets into the training of recruits.

"We are looking at this as an extension of the classroom," said John Drake, head of NSTC's strategy and analysis division, who's overseeing the tests. "These first tests are really a test of concept and the the tablets being issued were picked based on the requirements we developed for what it needed to do."

A total of 200 small tablets were purchased .

Most recruits are being issued an off-the-shelf Acer Iconia Tab 8, an 8-inch tablet that comes with a protective case .

In addition, 50 MilSpec, 8-inch Getac T800 tablets were purchased.

GREAT LAKES, Ill., (April 7, 2015) – Aviation Structural Mechanic 1st Class Maureen Lydon and Aviation Structural Mechanic 2nd Class Robert Reynolds, both Recruit Division Commanders (RDCs), go over a new electronic tablet (e-tablet) with Seaman Recruit Joseph Jacobus, 24, from Sacramento, Calif., during the launch of an e-Sailor initiative at Recruit Training Command (RTC) here, Apr. 7. The Navy’s top enlisted Sailor, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) Mike D. Stevens, handed out the e-tablets to 40 new recruits to begin a pre-pilot beta test to help determine how well the devices will integrate into the training environment at RTC. The e-tablets will contain RTC curriculum, including training videos, texts and access to professional development websites. (U. S. Navy photo by Scott A. Thornbloom)

AM1 Maureen Lydon and AM2 Robert Reynolds, both recruit division commanders, go over features of the new tablets with Seaman Recruit Joseph Jacobus.

Photo Credit: Scott A. Thornbloom/Navy

"The current maintenance plan is to issue the Acer tablets first," Drake said. "As they break or are damaged, we'll replace them with the MILSPEC version."

"The goal is to see how the off-the-shelf version performs," Drake said. "We'll be seeing how they survive being dropped, carried and used regularly over the eight weeks."

Though Drake didn't offer up a unit cost, it's clear that the off-the-shelf tablets are the way to go, if they can survive the sailor test. The Iconia Tab 8 retails for about $150, compared to $1,500 for the more rugged Getac device .

Recruits will carry the Acer tablets in the cargo pocket of the trousers of their blue-and-gray Navy working uniform , Drake said. But the MilSpec version is slightly larger because of the built-in protection and may have to be carried in backpacks.

The recruit division commanders will also get tablets, in part to help train with them.

Along with the Windows 8.1 software, all documents and books normally issued to recruits have been loaded on the tablets, including their Trainee Guide — which tells them how to fold clothing and make their beds and other vital boot camp gouge . Also included is an electronic version of the venerable Bluejackets' Manual, which has been a main reference book since 1902.

"The Bluejacket's Manual is the only non-Navy owned content on the tablet," Drake said. "The [U.S.] Naval Institute ... worked with us to provide an electronic version."

In addition, two interactive games have been loaded. One is designed to teach sailors the perils of human trafficking. The other will teach recruits about information and computer security, Drake said.

Initially there will be no access to email or the Internet, Drake said. There are no plans to allow any kind of open Web surfing. But the recruits will be able to start accessing Wi-Fi in their barracks after the mid way point of their eight-week training.

"They will have access to Navy.mil web

During the pilot, the tablets will cycle through three of the two-division cycles of recruits over the next six months .

If successful — and both Drake and Stevens believe it will be — the plan is to start early in fiscal year 2016 by expanding the tablets and Wi-Fi to one entire "ship," as barracks at RTC are called.

The 'ship" where the tests are taking place is the USS Grace Hopper, named in honor for one of the Navy's computer pioneers.

Drake says it was luck of the draw and not by design that the testing is happening out of a barracks names for one of the service's computer pioneers.

"It truly is coincidence that happened," Drake said. "But it wasn't lost on those here that we think she'd be quite pleased by the whole thing."