Tell us about your Rate or MOS

Sailor.X

Cold War Veteran
Founder
Since we have a few members of this Board that served in the US Military and other militaries. It seems fitting that we have a thread to talk about our Rates and MOSs. It can be both informative to fellow Vets and those who are curious about what people do in the military.

I will start it off.

US Navy Engineman: Navy Engineman Rating

Basically we are Diesel Mechanics. Onboard ships we operate Main Propulsion Diesels. Diesel Generators, Refrigeration Plants, AC Plants, Anchor Windless Assemblies, Steering Gears, Boat Davits, Galley and Laundry Repair work. We are part of the Ships Primary Damage Control Teams. We are Team members on the SAT and BAFF teams. And Aft gunners on Board Teams.

In the various Boat Units in the Navy we serve as the primary Mechanics on the Boats, The Stern Hooks and the Aft Gunners on Patrol and Landing Craft. It is a duty tough job. But one where you get to do the most varied work. Back in my day Engineman served on Patrol Boats, Surface Ships Seabee Battlions, Landing Craft, Dive Units and Tugboats. It was a great rate to be in.

So what was your Rate and MOS like?
 

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Did Engineman only work with diesels or did they work with gas turbines as well?
 

Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
Founder
I am Active Duty US Army, and I am a SIGINT Analyst. Also known as a 35N

Some sites that give good idea of what I do: Army-Portal.com - Army Jobs - MOS 35N Signals Intelligence Analyst How to Become an Army Signals Intelligence Analyst (MOS 35N)

It is in my title, but I work with the Secret Squirrel groups, as well as the NSA and other agencies to help with the protection of the US.

I personally deal with ELINT and the like, to maintain constant awareness of the enemy battlespace in some way shape, or form.

I am trying to not give away more that I am not allowed to give.
 

Panzerkraken

Well-known member
I'm retired Army 37F: Psychological Operations, and my prior MOS was 35E (now 94E) Radio and Communications Security Equipment Maintainer (pretty much broadly electronics maintenance; we cross-trained a lot with the other MOSs in the shop).

PSYOP (no 's' at the end!) influences target audience behaviors and perceptions to accomplish mission objectives; we also have a primary role in MILDEC, since the processes are the same, just tied to a single decision maker (the adversary commander) instead of a group. On the active side, it's purely a SOF MOS, and the Reserves have the regular army support mission. Guys like Zachowon provided us with a lot of intelligence to act on, both in the tactical and operational realms.

@Zachowon, if you're concerned about what you can and can't talk about, just remember that anything in US Code (like Title 50 definitions) or an unclass JP is unclassified, and most of those are present without a login at the Joint Staff website. I'd say steer clear of current operations and discussing any fusion activities for sure.
 

Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
Founder
I'm retired Army 37F: Psychological Operations, and my prior MOS was 35E (now 94E) Radio and Communications Security Equipment Maintainer (pretty much broadly electronics maintenance; we cross-trained a lot with the other MOSs in the shop).

PSYOP (no 's' at the end!) influences target audience behaviors and perceptions to accomplish mission objectives; we also have a primary role in MILDEC, since the processes are the same, just tied to a single decision maker (the adversary commander) instead of a group. On the active side, it's purely a SOF MOS, and the Reserves have the regular army support mission. Guys like Zachowon provided us with a lot of intelligence to act on, both in the tactical and operational realms.

@Zachowon, if you're concerned about what you can and can't talk about, just remember that anything in US Code (like Title 50 definitions) or an unclass JP is unclassified, and most of those are present without a login at the Joint Staff website. I'd say steer clear of current operations and discussing any fusion activities for sure.
You work a lot with CI and HUMINT, and get some support from me.

SIGINT is the collection of intelligence through interception of Signals. It is one of the most important single.source Intelligence out there, perhaps even more useful in this day and age then HUMINT.
We work in conjunction with HUMINT, GEOINT, and sometimes even All source to make sure our info is correct.

We are generally used at strategic levels, But is being phased out on the tactical side with out various systems. For tactical we use the Prophet system.

In strategic levels we generally work with the NSA st thier sites both foriegn sites and domestic ones. We can also be at division level for forcecom, and go to working with other agencies like the FBI, DEA, CIA, and the like at all levels.
 

Panzerkraken

Well-known member
You work a lot with CI and HUMINT, and get some support from me.

...

We are generally used at strategic levels, But is being phased out on the tactical side with out various systems. For tactical we use the Prophet system.

I've had 35Ns working in my element at the operational level; while the direct collection was well-served at the strat level, having people to provide the right language for specific requests from a JSOTF is invaluable, and the accesses and authorities that a 35N has are useful at that level and below as well, with job-specific equipment and activities that can go on to support tactical level SMUs as well.

After all, the equipment is never really GONE, just not on units' MTOE anymore.
 

Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
Founder
I've had 35Ns working in my element at the operational level; while the direct collection was well-served at the strat level, having people to provide the right language for specific requests from a JSOTF is invaluable, and the accesses and authorities that a 35N has are useful at that level and below as well, with job-specific equipment and activities that can go on to support tactical level SMUs as well.

After all, the equipment is never really GONE, just not on units' MTOE anymore.
We are analysts. We are always a valuable.tool where ever we work.
We have access to sites no other 35 series has because of us working with NSA and having the Poly unlike every other 35 series.

We are everywhere usually on strat level as we are more useful there in most situations
 

Sailor.X

Cold War Veteran
Founder
I'm retired Army 37F: Psychological Operations, and my prior MOS was 35E (now 94E) Radio and Communications Security Equipment Maintainer (pretty much broadly electronics maintenance; we cross-trained a lot with the other MOSs in the shop).

PSYOP (no 's' at the end!) influences target audience behaviors and perceptions to accomplish mission objectives; we also have a primary role in MILDEC, since the processes are the same, just tied to a single decision maker (the adversary commander) instead of a group. On the active side, it's purely a SOF MOS, and the Reserves have the regular army support mission. Guys like Zachowon provided us with a lot of intelligence to act on, both in the tactical and operational realms.

@Zachowon, if you're concerned about what you can and can't talk about, just remember that anything in US Code (like Title 50 definitions) or an unclass JP is unclassified, and most of those are present without a login at the Joint Staff website. I'd say steer clear of current operations and discussing any fusion activities for sure.
Gives you a knowing nod.

Last of the Cold Warriors we be.;)
 

Sailor.X

Cold War Veteran
Founder
@Sailor.X @Panzerkraken What made you choose you military jobs?
For me I was following in the footsteps of my Brother. He Joined the US Navy just after the Korean War Ended and served in Vietnam in the Riverine Forces. I always wanted to be a Boat Guy. So while I was in High School I talked to the Navy recruiter and my ASVAB score was high enough to get me the Engineman rate. So after High School Graduation I shipped off to Boot Camp. Then to Engineman Class A School. By me graduating 5th in my class I was guarranteed the pick of good orders. I saw there was a posting for a Boat Unit in Navsta Roosevelt Roads so I leaped at it. It was a great duty station. Year round Summer. Only having to talk to an Officer every once in a while (Chiefs Run Boat Units for the most part) And the opportunity to pad my service record with lots of good missions. Being an Engineman was tough but rewarding duty.

Edit: This is just one of the missions I was a part of.

 
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Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
Founder
For me I was following in the footsteps of my Brother. He Joined the US Navy just after the Korean War Ended and served in Vietnam in the Riverine Forces. I always wanted to be a Boat Guy. So while I was in High School I talked to the Navy recruiter and my ASVAB score was high enough to get me the Engineman rate. So after High School Graduation I shipped off to Boot Camp. Then to Engineman Class A School. By me graduating 5th in my class I was guarranteed the pick of good orders. I saw there was a posting for a Boat Unit in Navsta Roosevelt Roads so I leaped at it. It was a great duty station. Year round Summer. Only having to talk to an Officer every once in a while (Chiefs Run Boat Units for the most part) And the opportunity to pad my service record with lots of good missions. Being an Engineman was tough but rewarding duty.

Edit: This is just one of the missions I was a part of.


Very interesting! Sounds like you had a great time!
 

Panzerkraken

Well-known member
I had gotten a GED because I moved around a lot, and I wasn't doing much, so I decided to join the Army to give myself some motivation to move forward and see things outside Michigan. I blew the ASVAB up, but with a GED I only had 9 jobs or something like that available. Skipping the first page of combat arms stuff, I found myself narrowing it down to Journalists, Apache Crew Chief, or Radio and COMSEC repair. Since I didn't like working on engines, and I was already pretty good at English stuff, I chose the EMS job. Loved it, and loved working on the equipment.

In AIT one morning, a friend of mine said "Hey, want to skip PT tomorrow? There's an Airborne briefing." I went along and thought the recruiter looked neat in his beret and class A's tucked into his boots, so I decided to volunteer for Airborne. I passed that, and after my 2nd jump I was hopping around packing up my gear because it was the most fun I'd had ever. So when I wound up in the 82nd, jumping and working on electronics all the time, I was having a blast, which carried me through 5 years there.

Right before we left for AFG in 2002, a friend of mine who had gotten out and come back in as PSYOP invited me to one of his unit functions at the Green Beret club on Bragg (that was the name of it, hardly any SF guys went there). I got to know PSYOP people and thought it seemed like a cool job doing interesting stuff, and I'd been in the same squad for 5 years with no moves in sight, so I decided to reenlist for the BEAR program, which meant I would finish out my enlistment, extend for training, then reenlist in the new MOS, which I did, and never regretted for a single moment. I was able to stay on jump status, learned a language (Korean, coincidentally), and worked in a series of challenging environments at all levels of joint and combined military operations for the next 16 years. Lots of good leaders and troops the whole time. If I were able to do one of those rewind things I'd totally go back and do it again.
 

Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
Founder
I had gotten a GED because I moved around a lot, and I wasn't doing much, so I decided to join the Army to give myself some motivation to move forward and see things outside Michigan. I blew the ASVAB up, but with a GED I only had 9 jobs or something like that available. Skipping the first page of combat arms stuff, I found myself narrowing it down to Journalists, Apache Crew Chief, or Radio and COMSEC repair. Since I didn't like working on engines, and I was already pretty good at English stuff, I chose the EMS job. Loved it, and loved working on the equipment.

In AIT one morning, a friend of mine said "Hey, want to skip PT tomorrow? There's an Airborne briefing." I went along and thought the recruiter looked neat in his beret and class A's tucked into his boots, so I decided to volunteer for Airborne. I passed that, and after my 2nd jump I was hopping around packing up my gear because it was the most fun I'd had ever. So when I wound up in the 82nd, jumping and working on electronics all the time, I was having a blast, which carried me through 5 years there.

Right before we left for AFG in 2002, a friend of mine who had gotten out and come back in as PSYOP invited me to one of his unit functions at the Green Beret club on Bragg (that was the name of it, hardly any SF guys went there). I got to know PSYOP people and thought it seemed like a cool job doing interesting stuff, and I'd been in the same squad for 5 years with no moves in sight, so I decided to reenlist for the BEAR program, which meant I would finish out my enlistment, extend for training, then reenlist in the new MOS, which I did, and never regretted for a single moment. I was able to stay on jump status, learned a language (Korean, coincidentally), and worked in a series of challenging environments at all levels of joint and combined military operations for the next 16 years. Lots of good leaders and troops the whole time. If I were able to do one of those rewind things I'd totally go back and do it again.
Hearing stories like this makes me glad I joined.
The diffrence is, I know for a fact I wont change MOS as the opportunities for the high speed army ahit comes all the time for 35 series, working with all DOD agencies
 

Panzerkraken

Well-known member
Hearing stories like this makes me glad I joined.
The diffrence is, I know for a fact I wont change MOS as the opportunities for the high speed army ahit comes all the time for 35 series, working with all DOD agencies
That's good, if you're happy with your job I'd stick with it. The biggest thing I'd remind you of is that when you find yourself unhappy as you're getting close to the time to decide if you're going to stay in or not, remember that you CAN always change your job or your assignment as part of a reenlistment deal. And if you find yourself hating where you're at because of optempo or even just a change in leadership, remember that you or they will leave eventually.

Otherwise, good times and have fun there! Especially in Korea, I loved it on the pen.
 

Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
Founder
That's good, if you're happy with your job I'd stick with it. The biggest thing I'd remind you of is that when you find yourself unhappy as you're getting close to the time to decide if you're going to stay in or not, remember that you CAN always change your job or your assignment as part of a reenlistment deal. And if you find yourself hating where you're at because of optempo or even just a change in leadership, remember that you or they will leave eventually.

Otherwise, good times and have fun there! Especially in Korea, I loved it on the pen.
I absolutely love it! Even the horror stories I heard from my buddies that went to other units, they never tried to find the bright side of things.
I will enjoy anything I do.

I love Korea here, I can finally go to Seoul...but I have to wait till after exercise
 

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