In 1917, a committee from the University of Washington offered campus facilities to the United States Navy, which decided to build a temporary Naval Training Station on campus grounds along Portage Bay on Lake Union (near the area now occupied by the UW Health Sciences Center). The station was established on August 1, 1917, largely through the efforts of Navy Commander Miller Freeman. Before the camp closed in 1919, over 5,000 men had been trained there for both naval and naval aviation units.

This photograph shows training station sailors with snare and bass drums and bugles, probably a marching band.