The job of an Aviation Mechanical Machinist mate is one with a great deal of variety. You literally help keep all the aircraft, weapons, submarines, ships and other equipment working and in good order, running correctly and safely. Equipment is often the key to the mission success and mission readiness depends on it. The main objective of a Machinist Mate is to help keep the fleet running at full capacity. When you are constantly working on equipment and machinery that is worth millions of dollars you can feel a lot of pressure, but for many people this is just part of the job.
If you have strong skills in how to trouble shoot mechanical things, and you are good at working with your hands and have technical savvy, then this can be the field you may do very well in. You may have a desalination system that you are working on restoring to full running order one day. And on another day you might be responsible for troubleshooting the systems on a F/A 18 Hornet. It is a vehicle, machine, or system on board ship or in the air that is used by the Navy, chances are great that you will be assigned at one time or another to work on it.
Systems involved in transportation, communication, support, and navigation as well as other systems are all ones that an Aviation Mechanical Machinist Mate may work on
Some of the duties that you may have include:
-Perform maintenance and engine repair on aviation aircraft.
-Troubleshoot and maintain complex systems.
-Repair and operative automobile and heavy construction equipment.
-Work on and operate service steam generators on board ship.
-Perform daily preflight, post-flight and other repairs and maintenance on Aircraft.
-Perform cutting and welding operations.
-Install, repair and operate ventilation, air conditioning, heating and piping systems.
-Control and maintain turbo Generators used to produce electricity.
-Test and verify quality assurance on oil, water and fuel supplies.
-Repair and operated gas turbine engines, and use test and auxiliary equipment.
Occasionally some of your duty may take you to working with the Seabees. They are also masters of keeping things running both ashore and on board ship. You will receive training at a specialist Class a school depending on the type of job you have. You will be given both classroom training, and on the job training to build and refine your skills. Even if you are trained for a specific job, on board ship especially you will cross train and learn how to do one, two or even several other duties related to your job.