Hello, My name is William. I'm 26 and in the USN as a part of the Submarine force and am nearing the end of my obligated time in the navy. I am a Nuclear Certified Machinest Mate. I am use to working with fluid systems of all types, air conditioning units, air compressors and other ship board equipment. My training on submarines has included damage control, and basic first aid. Just to give a small background of my previous training. I have had an interest in a Yachting Career since picking up a yacht magazine in a laundry mat in Japan during my last deployment. My question is, how will my naval experience effect me being able to find a job with in the Yachting community? Is there any way for me to start pursuing training and engineer qualification prior to me leaving the navy and entering the yacht community? I am having difficulty researching this on my own.
Hi, Your best bet is to see if your time below sea level will get you anything equivalent with the USCG, Marmot , a fellow YF man who is very familiar with the cross reference is currently on deployment to somewhere warm so you might have to wait for the definitive answer from the well informed.
The first step is to get someone to certify to your time at sea. My guess is that time-at-sea is time-at-sea... being underwater probably doesn't make a difference. Your experiences seem to be in the engineering domain, which I don't have direct experience with. That said, I work with a retired Navy Captain with many years at sea in a range of roles including skippering a destroyer... but he retired over a decade ago. He couldn't get the USCG to sign off on his time. But a recently discharged E-5 I know with substantial time as a coxswain got signed off no questions asked... the key being that he had the endorsements from his previous bosses. So my advice is to get all the documentation you can. For Masters and the like I know the forms... but for engineer I haven't a clue. Are there any wise YF folks out there that can offer suitable advice?
Hate to swell his head, but Marmots your guy. Wait for his answer, or better yet, send him a PM. That way he's sure to catch it. In the mean time I seem to remember severl posts, if not threads, where 'what's needed' and 'using military time at sea to qulaify' have been addressed. Use the SEARCH feature. Good possibility that your questions were asked and answered already.
