Recruit Training Command’s (RTC) Freedom Hall at Naval Station Great Lakes has upgraded the timing system used to record recruit Physical Readiness Test (PRT) results.
     The new equipment, referred to as “Jaguar,” is safer, more accurate and expected to save the Navy thousands of dollars in maintenance fees every year.
    Since the opening of Freedom Hall in the fall of 2002, the “ChampionChip” timing system has been electronically recording and logging the run times of thousands of Navy recruits every week.  The recruits wear a microchip on their shoe to accurately gauge their run times.   Since 2010, the system has worked in conjunction with Corporate enterprise Training Activity Resource System (CeTARS) to log PRT data during the initial boot camp phase of training at RTC.  CeTARS is the authoritative training database for all formal Navy training and is managed in accordance with the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV) instruction 1510.10 (Series).
    “The original system had mats that recruits were required to run across, which created a trip hazard,” said CS1(SW/AW) Thomas Helms, assistant leading petty officer at RTC Freedom Hall. “The [recruits] felt like they sometimes had to drag their feet to make sure they were picked up by the computer.  Then they’d trip and fall right across the mat.” 
    The new “Jaguar” timing system uses four sensors that are set up next to the running track, minimizing the trip hazard factor, while increasing accuracy.  The sensors recognize the chip that the recruits are wearing as they run past, logging their time and lap information into the computer. 
    “The first sensor identifies the runner in the computer,” said AZ2(AW/SW) Mercedes Hill, lead instructor at RTC Freedom Hall.  “The second sensor is like a backup to the first one in that it verifies and confirms that the ID is correct.  The third sensor starts and records the time and lap information, and the fourth sensor verifies and confirms that the time and lap information is correct, kind of like a backup, by taking another reading and comparing it to the third sensor.”