One of the attractions of the Gas Turbine Systems Technician rating (GS) for Sailors who don’t intend on making the Navy a lifelong career is the availability of related employment opportunities in the private sector. In the GS Electrical (GSE) rating, for example, the Navy’s Credentialing Opportunities On-line program lists almost twenty classes of civilian jobs that require many of the skills and much of the knowledge a GSE Sailor will have acquired. The number is almost as high (sixteen) for the number of jobs that GSM Sailors might seriously consider when their Naval service draws to a close.
Sailors in the GS rating who wish to make the Navy their lifetime career can look forward to a fairly long haul before they are eligible to take part in the rating’s Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) and Limited Duty Officer (LDO). On average, Sailors in the two ratings will spend almost fourteen years (13.8) before they reach the paygrade of E7 and the rate of Chief Petty Officer (CPO). That jumps to close to fifteen years (14.7) when looking at just those in the GSM rating. And CWO eligibility requires Sailors to have served at least one full year as a CPO before October 1 of the year in which they apply for consideration for advancement.
Of course, Sailors from all these same ratings are also competing for LDO slots, but the eligibility specifications for the LDO program mean GS Sailors can begin pursuing chances to be commissioned much sooner than they could if they were aiming for CWO. Sailors must reach the grade of Petty Officer First Class (E6) and have served at that rate for a year come October of the year in which they applied for the LDO program—but the average GS Sailor will achieve that goal in under ten years (nine years on average for GSE, 10.6 for GSM).
Also worth considering is the fact that GSE and GSM are just two of a dozen source ratings for the CWO Engineering Technician category; others include Damage Controlman, Hull Maintenance Technician, Electrician’s Mate, Engineman, Interior Communications Technician, Machinery Repairman, and four Machinist’s Mate ratings and service ratings.
Related Items
Gas Turbine Systems Technician (GS) Rating Badge
Gas Turbine Systems Technician (GS) Ball Cap Device
CWO Engineering Technician Hard Shoulder Boards
CWO Engineering Technician Soft Epaulets
CWO Engineering Technician Sleeve Device
CWO Engineering Technician Collar Device