Gunner's Mate

“You'll operate and maintain the weapons systems that make Navy ships lethal — from Mk 38 25mm machine guns to the Mk 45 5-inch naval gun to Tomahawk cruise missiles and torpedoes, depending on your platform. GMs are the Navy's weapons specialists, and the combination of weapons knowledge, federal law enforcement eligibility, and small arms qualification translates to law enforcement armory positions, defense contractor weapons sustainment roles, and DoD civilian ordnance management careers. The technical depth on naval weapons systems is specific enough that contractors supporting Navy surface warfare programs recruit from the GM community directly and consistently.”

You maintain the MK 45 5-inch/62-caliber gun that can put a round nine miles downrange, the MK 15 Phalanx CIWS (the 'R2-D2 looking thing' that fires 4,500 rounds per minute and is the last-ditch missile defense nobody wants to need), and every piece of small arms aboard the ship including the ones the MA rate thinks they own. The magazine spaces are your domain — a steel labyrinth of ammunition handling equipment, ready service lockers, and systems that the damage control people hope never have to demonstrate their emergency shutdown procedures. Small arms qualification, armory inspection, ammunition accounting: the administrative load is higher than the rate advertises. At-sea target exercises and weapons firing events are the best days — loud, purposeful, and a reminder of what the ship actually is. The ordnance civilian world includes EOD support contracting, weapons systems maintenance contracting, and law enforcement armorer positions. The small arms knowledge transfers to any range officer or armorer position in law enforcement or private security. The security clearance is a bonus. The institutional knowledge of what a Navy warship's weapons systems look like when properly maintained is something that cannot be fully replicated in any classroom.