Tracked Vehicle Repairer

“You'll maintain tracked armored vehicles — the M1 Abrams, M2/M3 Bradley, M113, and the supporting tracked systems the Army operates. Armor maintenance is heavy, technically demanding work that develops mechanical problem-solving at the highest difficulty level. Defense contractors at Anniston Army Depot (the Army's armored vehicle overhaul center), BAE Systems, and GDLS maintain fleets of armored vehicles under contract and specifically recruit people who worked on the systems. The heavy equipment skills also translate to civilian mining, construction, and equipment dealer service positions.”

You fix tracked vehicles, which means you fix things that are heavy, greasy, loud, and occasionally on fire in ways that the operator describes as 'it was doing that before I got in.' The Bradley Fighting Vehicle, M113 variants, and other tracked platforms are your primary patients — track vehicles with suspension systems, power packs, road wheels, and drive sprockets that require the kind of physical maintenance that gym memberships are meant to prepare you for and don't. Track replacement in the Army is a rite of passage that tests both your upper body strength and your philosophical acceptance of suffering. The power pack pulls — removing the complete engine and transmission assembly — are the major maintenance evolutions that your day sometimes becomes without warning. Army tracked vehicle mechanics who develop genuine proficiency are highly sought by the mining industry, construction equipment companies (Caterpillar, Komatsu, John Deere), and heavy equipment dealers whose field service technicians work on similarly complex tracked machinery. The civilian pay for field service technicians on heavy equipment is excellent. Your Army track time translates, with some civilian equipment exposure, to a career path that pays disproportionately well relative to the education it requires.