Just over a year ago, the Navy launched a three-week prep course for new recruits who might never have made it to boot camp. The Navy Future Sailor Preparatory Course gave a path to enlistment to recruits who wanted to be sailors but who were out of shape, or whose test scores were too low. The idea was to boost their qualifications until they qualified to enter regular boot camp that all recruits go through.
A year later, the prep course has not only sent over 90% of its recruits to boot camp, but six have gone on to be Honor Grads. Additionally, late last month, the prep course had its first alum named as the overall top graduate of their recruit training class.
Seaman Apprentice Jason Lorentz was named the top Sailor in of the boot camp class that graduated Jan. 23. He was named the recipient of the Navy Club of the United States Military Excellence Award, which goes to the top recruit in every Navy basic training class at Recruit Training Command at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, Illinois.
Lorentz was the first prep course grad to earn the Navy Club award, given to the top graduate of a basic training class, but five other prep course graduates have earned a so-called “top six” award to be named a Navy Recruit Honor Graduate. The top six awards include the Navy Club award and five others awarded to top recruits for top academic and assessment scores, teamwork and “meritorious performance” during boot camp.
“I’ve wanted to be a Sailor for as long as I can remember,” Lorentz told the Navy in a release. “While I was in high school, I took the ASVAB so many times and came up short. I gave up my aspirations to serve for a few years until the Navy gave me a second chance to improve my test scores. I jumped at the opportunity, as it’s something I knew would help me to develop and become the kind of person my little brother and sister could be proud of. I wanted to show them that as long as you don’t give up anything is possible in life.”
He begins training soon at the Navy Hospital Corpsman “A” School in San Antonio, Texas.
Future Sailor Prep Course grads have over 90% success rate
The Navy established the prep course as a pilot test on April 10, 2023. That August, the service launched a full FSPC-Fitness course with the FSPC-Academic course in Jan. 2024 to focus on would-be sailors in each area. Jamieson said each class size varies but the academic course averages approximately 150 participants per cohort and the fitness course averages approximately 30 participants per cohort.
According to data provided by the Navy, 71.8% of academic participants and 91% of fitness participants have successfully completed the prep course and entered basic training. Of those who make it through the prep course to the first day of regular boot camp, roughly 95% of academic participants and 93% of fitness participants go on to graduate.
“It’s a testament to the program’s ability to prepare motivated recruits to excel both physically and academically,” Lt. Cmdr. Mack Jamieson, a Naval Service Training Command spokesman, told Task & Purpose. “These achievements highlight the effectiveness of [the Future Sailor Prep Course] in equipping future Sailors with the skills and confidence needed to stand out as warfighters in the making.”
The course has been a boon for the Navy as all military services have faced recent historic recruiting droughts. The Navy missed its fiscal year 2023 goals by about 7,500 active duty sailors, bringing in just 30,236 sailors to the fleet. But in fiscal year 2024, those numbers took a leap, as the service recruited 40,978 new sailors — barely past its goal of 40,600.
A big chunk of that improvement came from prep course sailors. In 2024, the school’s first full year, the Navy said, the academic track enrolled 4,516 recruits, with 399 in the fitness track.
So far in 2025, 1,220 recruits have enrolled in the academic track and 249 recruits in the fitness track.
To qualify for the course, recruits have to be outside standard enlistment requirements, but within limits. The fitness track requires that recruits be no more than 6% over the Navy body-fat standards of 26 to 32% for males and 36 to 42% for females. Recruits must score at least 21 but below 30 on the Armed Forces Qualification Test Category IV, which is considered “below average” scores for initial recruits.
The course takes place alongside regular basic training at Great Lakes. Recruits on the academic track receive help with math, reading, and test-taking skills through tutoring and computer-based learning. Those on the fitness track are taught and participate in structured physical training, nutrition education, and life skills. Jamieson said the prep course maintains a similar, disciplined atmosphere the recruits will experience in basic training.
Improving scores for a better job
The first prep course graduate to earn an Honor Graduate award at regular boot camp came last July. Fireman Apprentice Kahmelakaith Solano earned the Navy League award for her boot camp class, becoming the first prep course graduate to earn a Top Six award.
Like Lorentz, Solano was in the prep course for academics, hoping to improve her scores by at least ten points. Prior to enlisting, her testing scores qualified her for Aviation Ordnanceman but were too low for her “dream job” in the Navy, Gas Turbine Technician Mechanical.
“As long as you use your time wisely and focus on learning as much as you can each day, it’s possible to succeed,” Solano said in a Navy release. “It’s something I would recommend for anyone who has language barriers or who lacks confidence academically like I did.”
Jamieson said the recruits who enter the prep course but fail to graduate generally run into medical issues, not academic issues. On the fitness track, he said, no recruit who has avoided has yet failed to meet physical standards in the fitness track.
The prep course is effective in helping recruits ready themselves for the rigors of basic training, a sentiment echoed by Solano and Lorentz.
“Everything you do in boot camp is a team effort. A big part of doing well here is communicating and learning to work with each other. I wasn’t really used to that, and there were times when I struggled,” Solano said. “But like anything else, the more we all worked at it, the easier it became. By the end of our training, you could see how much we’d bonded and became stronger as a unit as a result.”