U.S. NAVY UTILITIESMAN (UT) BUCKLE

For Sailors serving in the Utilitiesman rating (UT) who are considering a transition back to civilian life, the prospects for using the knowledge and experience they have gained while serving their country are extremely bright. With housing and other construction projects undergoing steady growth in the past several years, the training and education they have received in the installation, maintenance, and repair of Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration systems makes them perfectly poised to find well-paying jobs.

According a 2014 study conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the hiring of installers and mechanics in the heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration fields is expected to grow fourteen percent between 2014 and 2024. This is considerably higher than the average for all occupations taken together, and part of the reason is the lifespan of climate-control technology. HVACR systems typically need to be replaced somewhere between every ten and fifteen years, a rate which in and of itself ensures demand for the skills that are part and parcel of the Utilitiesman rating.

But another factor is the move toward more energy-efficient systems: Rather than waiting for HVAC units to break down or degrade to the point where replacements are mandatory, homeowners and businesses are installing new HVAC systems to achieve energy savings, take advantage of tax credits, or simply to do their part in reducing CO2 emissions.

The U.S. Navy has taken the same approach, and consequently UT Sailors are being given the chance to work with the sort of energy- and cost-saving equipment that are becoming more commonplace in the private marketplace. At Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, for example, the Navy undertook the service’s largest energy retrofitting project ever. Beginning in 2002 and expected to be finished in 2017, the project is expected to reduce energy usage at the station by more than forty percent, which translate into a yearly savings of some $6 million. Included in the systems that Utilitiesmen installed were high-efficiency HVAC units, a ground-source heat pump (which uses the earth as a source of heat in the winter and as a heat sink in colder weather), and more than 18,000 digitally accessible measurement points to pinpoint potential sources of energy transfer loss in real time.

Winner of the Virginia Sustainable Building Network’s 2011 Award for Green Innovation and the 2008 Presidential Award for Leadership in Federal Energy Management, the project gave Sailors in the Utilitiesman (UT) rating invaluable hands-on experience with the sort of systems they likely will be working with after their Navy careers have drawn to a close.

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U.S. NAVY UTILITIESMAN (UT) BUCKLE