Military Branch Survey

[NCO Retired]

Home life and growing up in a one horse town that rolled the sidewalks up at 9pm. I wanted to see the world and see historical places I only read about. I enlisted at age 17 and one week, left and never looked back and I did exactly what I left for. After 20 years and 26 days, I continued to travel the world. Finally hung up my travelling boots in 2009. Army life and cowboy life took a toll on the body. US Army 1965-85.........OH!! and yes I did modelling as a kid, airplanes, ships and cars but that did not influence my decision to get the hell out on my own.

[shortround91]

US Army 87-92 lost most my knee cap but enjoyed my job during Desert Storm

[flyboy56]

USAF 1980-2000. Jet Engine Mechanic . F 111,A 10, F 16, F 15

[Rocky9]

US Navy Sonar Technician 1998-2002. USS Spruance DD-963

[BluesDragon]

Much respect to all...

[Sekhet]

US Air Force, 1980-1995 Active and 1995-2011 USAF Reserve.

[Evan D]

US Navy, 1976-1996 Active and 1996-2006 Fleet Reserve.

[Dacostasr]

USAF 1979-1999

[Heli143]

U.S Army 1975-1995

[Phantom]

It's been my honor to serve. Appreciate the warm welcome.

[F22trainer]

U.S. Army, 2002 - present day. Enlisted as a 67T, now 15T Blackhawk mechanic/crew chief, currently a rotary and fixed wing pilot.

Welcome to the asylum and thank you for serving.

[Phantom]

U.S. Army, 2002 - present day. Enlisted as a 67T, now 15T Blackhawk mechanic/crew chief, currently a rotary and fixed wing pilot.

[boomer108]

A somewhat sad, but momentus day for me Friday. My first EA-6B squadron, VMAQ-2, was de-commissioned. A great ceremony which included several flybys of the last two operational Prowlers in existence on their last flight as part of the squadron. Luckily, both will be saved for static display, one at Love Field in Dallas, Texas, the other at the National Air and Space Museum in D.C. Thought some of you here might be interested.

Although I'm not a Navy guy I have many of memories of refueling the different A-6 airframes over the years especially the one during the Gulf War that was on my boom over the Persion Gulf low level headed toward Quait on a bomb run when we flew into a low scud layer and he completely disappeared on the end of my boom, what a night!

[EA-6B Geek]

You're right Charlie. I'll try to find an appropriate photo.:)

[OV10]

You need to honor that bird and replace that A-4 in your user pic ;)Sad.........the last of the A-6 airframes to fly :(

[EA-6B Geek]

A somewhat sad, but momentus day for me Friday. My first EA-6B squadron, VMAQ-2, was de-commissioned. A great ceremony which included several flybys of the last two operational Prowlers in existence on their last flight as part of the squadron. Luckily, both will be saved for static display, one at Love Field in Dallas, Texas, the other at the National Air and Space Museum in D.C. Thought some of you here might be interested.

[deadbug]

USAF Active Duty 1977-1988: T-38 IP/Check Pilot; C-141B IP/Flight Examiner, HQ MAC Flight Examiner
USAFR 1988-1997: C-141B IP, USAF Reserve Assistance Officer to CAP.
Retired 1997
Airline 1988-2017...Retired

[Hoomi]

I was Radar/Nav in the Air Force, working primarily Starlifters, though I did get to occasionally work a Sabreliner or a Hercules. I think one time I got to work a Galaxy.

Sometime after I got out, they restructured the maintenance organizations in the USAF, and to my knowledge, the Avionics Maintenance Squadrons vanished under something like a Combined Maintenance Squadron. As I was told, under that system, an Avionics Tech might get pulled to assist mechanical maintenance, if things in the electronics end were slow.

I enjoyed working avionics. It was a good field to learn, and provided me with knowledge and skills that have kept me gainfully employed for pretty much 40 years now.

Funny, though, that I worked aircraft maintenance in the Air Force, but for the last 36+ years, I've worked in the Metrology Department of a large corporation, without having worked PMEL in the USAF.

[Valkpilot]

More than a few ;)There used to be 25+ when I was in but in 1990 there was 8 that were merged into similar ratings.
My AQ (Aviation Fire Control) rating was merged into the AT's(Aviation Electronics Tech).
In my day on A-6 Intruders (early 70's) the AQ's were responsible for Inertial, Computer, Radar and Weapons release platforms while the AT's had the Radios, Displays, Navigation, Tactical and ECM Sensors.
Now these days the AT's have the complete avionics package which is quite the handful.:Whew:

Yea my rate was also part of a consolidation. I was originally a Data Processing technician, then about my 14 year mark the people in Washington (one of them being one of my past division officers) decided that since the rating was going digital, to merge DP with Radioman. Well, comes exam time, we ate their lunch because they had problems with our side, most of their stuff was simple to us, resulting in a 60/40 DP to RM
promotion rate. About four years later someone in the recruiting section noted that they were having problems meeting quotas, so they changed the name to Information Systems technician.

[icepirate3]

If I remember right, AD (Aviation Machinist Mate) was also one that was merged. Was a bit before my time but I think it was ADR for heli's, ADJ for turbo-jets, and maybe ADP for props? Much simpler merging them all but keeping specific NEC's (kind of the Navy's version of an MOS but specific to aircraft or systems). They were very good at making things more confusing than it had to be.