Aircrew Survival Equipmentman

“You'll maintain the NACES ejection seats, parachutes, and survival equipment that naval aviators depend on when everything else fails — gear that must work perfectly on the first deployment because there is no second chance to correct a packing error. The precision requirement is absolute, the documentation discipline is exacting, and the professional responsibility for equipment you've packed carries a weight that most technical specialties don't. The FAA Senior Parachute Rigger certification is achievable through your experience. The aerospace safety equipment industry — ejection seat sustainment, personal protective equipment maintenance, aerial delivery systems — employs PR veterans in positions that specifically value the military precision maintenance background.”

Your rate owns the equipment that is the difference between an aviator walking away from a mishap and the alternative outcome. The NACES ejection seat on an F/A-18 and the ACES II on other platforms are propulsion systems that fire pyrotechnically and must function perfectly after years of maintenance in a saltwater environment. You will pack parachutes — specifically, you will assemble parachute assemblies using procedures that have been developed over decades of learning what happens when they fail. The work is precise, documented, and subject to quality assurance review because the consequences of error are not abstract. Survival gear — life rafts, survival vests, NVGs, oxygen equipment — is all PR. The ALSS (Aviation Life Support System) shop on a carrier or at an air station is your workspace: small, clean relative to the rest of the aircraft maintenance world, and populated by people who take the work seriously. Post-Navy, the civilian aviation survival equipment industry is small and specifically values your background. Skydiving and parachute rigging are civilian equivalents with FAA Senior Rigger certification available. The precision maintenance culture and the specific technical knowledge of seat cartridge handling qualify you for explosive ordnance handling positions in civilian aviation maintenance.