ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area How many military electricians?

How many of you guys got your training in the military?

Did they teach you anything useful there?

Did your state or county recognize your training?

I served in the US Coast Guard, where they taught me Ohms law, and how to wire DC motors. Not very useful stuff for residential wiring, which I do now. They did teach me a good work ethic, which I cannot instill into my apprentices.

County recognized my training but I still had to work in the field for several years and pass the test.

My wife's brother spent Navy time learning computers. He drives a Coca Cola truck now. His knowledge is completely useless in the real world. (I'm a puter guru compared to him!). He really thought he was preparing himself for a good civilian career too. Kind of sad.

We've received lots of resumes from ex-military electricians. They all seem to contain items such as "qualified on BZQ-X~K". We don't even know what these are, much less need someone qualified with one.
On the other hand, as silvrbk mentioned, the ones we have hired have a good work ethic, are always on time, and fill out their paperwork correctly. Sometimes this is more useful to us than a "prima donna genius" from the private sector.

I spent my last year in the Air Force as an electrician since my previous assignment had no civilian equivalent. Couldn't learn a lot in one year except that I was interested in the trade.

I'll second that work ethic stuff, amazing how the threat of loss of pay and/or time in the brig creates good work habits, like showing up on time. Maybe we should go to mandatory militery service for all.

Tom

I was an Electrician's Mate onboard USS Ranger CV-61 from '86 to '90. The training that I received helped me some, but for the most part it didn't. I still had to get 8000 hours of OJT to be able to get my license in Houston.

After watching for a few years, has anyone els besides me ever notice that in order to be an electrician, you need to be ex-military or ex-con!!!!!! LOL

I'd be one of them there "longhairs"...

No military (not a ex-con either... luck?...) but I got respect for vets.

I wish the government really held true to their ad campaigns for recruiting, though...

Ex Navy here.
My training was in electronics though. I didn't get into the electrical trade until fairly late in life.

All in all the training was good. Electricity obeys the same laws of physics wether it's low level dc or high power ac.

Best part about the military was the travel, if you are single and want to see the world, it's great.......if you're married, it sucks.

GJ