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Naval Recruit Dies During Boot Camp At Great Lakes

UPDATED 01/12/12 8:56 a.m.

NAVAL STATION GREAT LAKES, Ill. (CBS) -- A 19-year-old U.S. Navy recruit has died during boot camp training at the Great Lakes Naval base.

Seaman Recruit Christopher Walker, 19, of Kittaning, Pa., died Wednesday morning at Recruit Training Command at Great Lakes, according to a release from the Naval Service Training Command.

Walker was participating in a standard physical fitness assessment when he died, the Navy said.

Lake County Coroner Artis Yancey said Wednesday Walker finished a physical training run and passed out. He was taken to the Captain James Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago where he was pronounced dead at 9:57 a.m., said Yancey.

Walker enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 16, and was set to graduate from boot camp in January. Afterward, he was supposed to attend follow-up training as a machinist mate.

"Seaman Recruit Walker was an outstanding recruit," Capt. Steven Bethke, commanding officer at Recruit Training Command, said in a news release. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to his entire family. His loss is felt by the entire Recruit Training Command staff."

An autopsy was tentatively scheduled for Thursday morning, he said.

The Lake County News-Sun contributed to this report, via the Sun-Times Media Wire.

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