One of the consequences of the establishment of the Hull Maintenance Technician rating (HT) and the consequent spinoff from it of the Damage Controlman (DC) rating was that a fair number of other ratings were left in the dustbins of Naval administrative history. Pipefitter, Metalsmith, Shipfitter, and other ratings were disestablished, with many of their duties being handed off to newly established or existing ratings.
But while the ratings might have been gone, the need for the work that Sailors in those ratings had performed still remained—eliminating the Metalsmith rating, for instance, didn’t mean there was no longer a need for the materials that Metalsmiths had crafted.
The solution was the Navy Afloat Maintenance Training Strategy, or NAMTS. Rather than continue to ratings that were being manned by fewer and fewer Sailors, the Navy created NAMTS to cross-train Sailors in associated ratings in the skills needed to perform vital maintenance work aboard fleet vessels. Specially, Sailors serving in the Hull Maintenance Technician (HT), Electrician’s Mate (EM), Gas Turbine Machinist (GSM), Engineman (EN), and Machinist’s Mate (MM) ratings who had skills and experience closely related to specific maintenance jobs would receive hands-on training that would enable them to peform essential maintenance tasks while ships were underway, eliminating the need for those vessels to return to port.
Sailors in the Hull Maintenance Technician (HT) rating can apply for NAMTS training opportunities and, upon successfully completing training under the tutelage of a Naval or civilian expert in the field, receive a Job Qualification Requirement NEC. (Note: the JQRs are only available from a Regional Maintenance Center that has an Intermediate Maintenance Facility or Activity.) Sailors that earn the JQR NEC and return to the fleet are assigned to a ship in a battle group and joins its Intermediate Maintenance Activity group, where they can then pass along their newly acquired skills.
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