In existence between 1986 and 1995, the Weapons Technician (WT) rating is right up there with ratings for Sailmaker and Aircraft Carburetor Mechanic in the running for the title of “Shortest-Lived Rating.”
The Weapons Technician rating was established in 1986 from the service rating of Gunner’s Mate Technician, which itself had been created in 1962 from the Nuclear Weaponsman rating established four years earlier. In 1994, the decision was made to disestablish the WT rating, and the announcement was made in the Navy News Service in an article succinctly titled “Weapons Technician Rating Disestablished.” It read, in part, “With the removal of all tactical nuclear weapons from Navy commands, the need for a dedicated rating to handle such weapons has diminished. Today there are approximately 230 WTs in the Navy, down from about 1,000 in 1992. More than 300 have already converted ratings. The others have retired or voluntarily left the Navy.”
But while the rating was disestablished, the friendships that were kindled over the relatively short period of its existence continue to live on in The Navy Nuclear Weapons Association, a national organization open to both Sailors and civilians who served in one way or another in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear weapons program from 1946 to 1995.