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Not sure if this is normal but my husband had quite a few.
1st (while enlisted) Crew Chief C-5s
2nd (after commissioning) Aircraft Maintenance
3rd Munitions Maintenance Storage
4th (after going to AFIT for masters) Acquisitions/Engineer Officer SPO
5th (after snafu shortage somewhere/required full cross-training) Nuclear Maintenance Officer (whoops base closed sorry)
Back to Aircraft Maintenance
6th (Whoops we need conventional weapons storage people) another school.
7th hey you did a great job, how about you become a procurement officer for weapons (more training)
Back to Nuclear Storage
Hey you did a good job how about Aircraft maintenance again
8th - How about working for the Dod as an explosives safety guy? totally new, more training!
Now he's a consultant and works in almost all those fields to some extent.
As a Submarine ET, it is common to get your first NEC coming out of 'C' school. In my case I had NEC:3333 to work on mainframe computers.
On my first boat, while in off-crew status one week I saw the school had an open seat for a school I was interested in so I jumped into that seat and I picked up the NEC:1594 WLR-1 tech [Electronic Surveillance Measures].
At re-enlistment time, they barter over how much your signing bonus will be [called 'SRB'], as well as what new NEC to go through for your next enlistment contract. That was when I picked up NEC:3323 [Intermediate Maintenance and calibration of synchros & gears].
Open billets for instructor duty were few after serving on two hulls, I wanted some kind of shore-duty. The Navy was advertising for Navy Police NEC: 9545, so I did that for shore duty.
On my last sub I picked up NEC:3924 - Intelligence operator.
But you were still an ET. Granted with some specialized training/qualifications. I think the OP meant going like from an ET to say an EM. Years back the Navy was receptive to "rating" changes if going to a rating needing filling like BM to EM but no way they would let you go EM to BM after all the money/training they spent on you as an EM.
Did not the Blue/Gold off crew also give you the time to do these things? Full time duty would generally not allow the time off to attend schools.
Vietnam era way back in time. I had two different MOS classifications. First was an infantry repair person. Went to school for that but only did that job for about six months. For most of my four year enlistment my MOS was embassy guard. And I had a top secret clearance even though I was just Sgt E5. Parents told me people were going around the neighborhood asking questions about me.
I was in the Mortar platoon in Vietnam.
My MOS was 11C (infantry with training with 81mm mortar).
I am very curious of what an infantry repair person did.
But you were still an ET. Granted with some specialized training/qualifications. I think the OP meant going like from an ET to say an EM. Years back the Navy was receptive to "rating" changes if going to a rating needing filling like BM to EM but no way they would let you go EM to BM after all the money/training they spent on you as an EM.
Did not the Blue/Gold off crew also give you the time to do these things? Full time duty would generally not allow the time off to attend schools.
I went through five NEC specialties, I have always remained an ET.
Well, regarding the Navy, going from one rating to another is not common. The most common of this uncommon event are people going from an overmanned rating to an undermanned rating, like from MS to MA, or going from QM to SO when they complete SEAL training, or rating conversions when the Navy merges or creates new ratings.
There are people who made it through their core "A' school and got their rating, but did not make it through the rest of the pipeline, so they kick them into an easier rating, and upon completing of the "A" school or requirements, get another rating.
A person with a rating however, can do quite a few different things despite their rating remaining the same. A formal example of this is the NEC 9545, which is basically security/Navy law enforcement, and so an MM for example can go to school and get this rating, then go serve shore duty with the MA's as Navy law enforcement. A rating can do something maybe job related, but not exactly or maybe not at all, just depends on what ratings they classify for the billets open, sometimes they are pretty off the mark, lol.
So under a rating, people of NEC codes, these are basically the nitty gritty technical names for the training a person receives. An MA has an NEC 9545, but a QM can also, but it does not make a QM an MA, their rating does not change. There are also numerous rating related NECs for their jobs, technical things, like over specific equipment. Having these gives you more knowledge, but does not change what you do day to day.
I only had one during my four years as enlisted but the tech school was a total of 52 weeks long so it make sense to me back then. By the time I got to my first permanent duty station, I was about 14 months into my enlistment with 34 months left to serve. Boy, it sure went by fast.
Wasn't Jessica Lynch an "infantry repair person" in Iraq? Or at least in an infantry repair company?
She was a very lucky young lady. She had an angel watching over her.
Quote:
Originally Posted by joe from dayton
She was a supply clerk in a maintenance company.
Yes she was in the 503rd Maintenance Company active duty unit out of Ft Carson. My unit 110th Maintenance Co was called in to replace them.
To OP, I spent 37+ years in uniform "US Army/ US Army National Guard". In the first 8 years were active duty, I was able to experience 3 MOS's though I was only awarded one. All three were in communications field but all were different. You do kind of cross train within your unit to understand jobs in your platoon and or company where needed. In the final 29 years of Army National Guard, I had the privilege of many different jobs. As you might expect I did start off in the communications field but due to being caught in a dead end (no upward mobility) slot I changed to a maintenance MOS and then got to experience about 15 different specialties and that on top of being able to supervise them all as a 1SG or in civilian terms the senior Non Commissioned Officer in a company sized element.
Last edited by oldsoldier1976; 04-13-2021 at 05:18 AM..
My MOS was 11C (infantry with training with 81mm mortar).
I am very curious of what an infantry repair person did.
Were you a Medic?
Possible to be a small arms repairman. There's a couple in maintenance and logistics units. Rifles, pistols, etc. do sometimes require higher level maintenance than armorers can effectively perform.
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