Skip to main content
HonestMOS
●InvestigationsHow EUCOM shelved a tax break for 9,000 troops in Poland — for five years.→
←Back to AE Aviation Electrician's Mate — overview, pay, training, civilian translation, reviews
AEE6

Aviation Electrician's Mate

E-6 (Staff Sergeant) · Navy

E1–E3E-4E-5E-6E-7E8–E9
HEADS UP

AE1 (E-6) is the LPO seat — the rank where the avionics work center either runs to standard because you set it, or drifts because you let it. The Chief board packet is live from the day you pin on. Your LCPO is editing your record across the year, your eEVAL ranking against every AE1 in the command builds the FMS narrative the Chief selection board reads, and the TMDE calibration locker and the yellow-sheet closure rate brief under your name at every department maintenance production review. The AE1 who treats the Chief board as a future problem rather than a current project is the AE1 who gets passed by the peer who started building the package two cycles ago.

The Honest MOS Read
Aviation Electrician's Mate First Class (AE1, E-6, Petty Officer First Class) is the LPO seat — the leadership position that sits between the deckplate and the goat locker and is accountable to both. You run the squadron's avionics or electrical work center: 10-20 AEs, a section of the maintenance production schedule, the NEC pipeline, the training plan, and the weekly readiness input the Maintenance Chief briefs to the Maintenance Officer. The work center's maintenance posture — yellow-sheet closure rate, NALCOMIS quality, TMDE calibration compliance, FMC/PMC contribution, FOD discipline — briefs under your name at every department-level sync. When it is clean, you get a nod. When it is not, the Maintenance Chief asks you in front of the department. The LPO role changes what you are responsible for in a way that is not obvious from the AE2 seat. At AE2 you owned a section of the work center's output — your personal maintenance quality and your section's documentation. At AE1 you own the work center's aggregate output: what every AE2 and AE3 in your work center produces, whether the QA office gets clean entries or repeated returns, whether the TMDE locker is current or has three overdue calibrations sitting on the shelf because 'the AE2 tracks that.' The AE1 who delegates accountability rather than execution finds out the hard way that the Maintenance Officer does not separate which AE2 let the calibration lapse from which AE1 was responsible for the calibration program. Writing eEVALs is the other defining function of the AE1 job that the AE2 seat does not prepare you for. You write four to six eEVALs per cycle, and those eEVALs pick the next NWAE slate and the next Chief selection board from your work center. The eEVAL is not a form to fill; it is a competitive document that places your rated AEs above or below the peers the Maintenance Chief and the CO are simultaneously rating in other work centers. The eEVAL block that reads 'performed maintenance on aircraft avionics systems' does not move a sailor. The eEVAL block that reads 'led 12-person avionics work center through CVW-17 type commander aviation readiness inspection — zero AE-attributed grounding discrepancies, 100% TMDE calibration compliance, four of five AE2 NWAE selectees fleet-wide' gives the senior rater a line he can defend at the wardroom board. Build the eEVAL language across the year, not in the final two weeks of the evaluation window. The NEC pipeline and commissioning mentoring are the long-game contributions the LPO makes that outlast any individual maintenance event. At AE1 you are mentoring at least one AE per year into a type-specific NEC C-school slot, the 2M qualification, or a commissioning program — STA-21, LDO, or CWO. The mentoring is honest: the STA-21 candidate who does not have the GPA, the class rank, or the demonstrated leadership is not going to select, and the AE1 who tells him 'you have a shot' is doing the sailor a disservice. The LDO and CWO paths require a specific record profile, a strong command endorsement, and a competitive application — and the AE1 who has counseled enough of them knows that the application that does not present the sailor's record in the best honest light is the application that does not select. Counsel honestly about the ADSO, the selection rate, and the seat they actually want. The Chief board packet conversation is not future work at AE1 — it starts at pin-on. Your LCPO is tracking your eEVAL profile against every AE1 in the command. The Aviation Warfare Specialist device is baseline, not distinction; it had better be on your blouse the day you pin AE1 or the explanation had better be solid. The Maintenance Officer and the Avionics Officer know your name because the work center's readiness numbers are the ones they brief — and the AE1 whose work center briefs without caveat every cycle is the AE1 the Maintenance Chief recommends when the Chief selection board slate opens.
Career Arc
  • 01AE1 pin-on — Chief board packet construction begins immediately; LCPO initiates eEVAL profile tracking against peer AE1s in the command; Aviation Warfare Specialist device must be pinned or in active PQS.
  • 02Work center LPO seat owned: yellow-sheet accountability, TMDE calibration program, NALCOMIS quality, FMC/PMC contribution, and pipeline output become the AE1's brief at every department maintenance production review.
  • 03First full eEVAL cycle as a rater — 4-6 eEVALs written; NWAE selectees, NEC completions, and commissioning accessions from the work center become the measurable output the senior rater defends.
  • 04Type-specific NEC pipeline producing at least one selectee per year from the work center (NEC 6320, 6362, or platform equivalent); 2M qualification or commissioning packet in progress if the command supports it.
  • 05Chief board package building across consecutive eEVAL cycles — measurable maintenance outcomes, named avionics system effects, no integrity incidents, LCPO actively editing the record toward the board.
  • 06Senior Chief board timeline becoming visible — the AE1 with two or three cycles of EP eEVAL ranking, a clean safety record, pipeline output above the air wing average, and a command endorsement is in the competitive window.
Common Screwups
  • ×Falsifying or tolerating falsification of a maintenance record, NALCOMIS entry, or TMDE calibration log. The maintenance record integrity requirement exists because falsified records kill people on the next flight, and the LPO whose name is on the work center's quality assurance program owns both the systemic failure and the individual incident. At AE1, maintenance record falsification is an immediate career-ending event: NJP or court martial, administrative separation, and a federal record that closes every subsequent aviation-adjacent career. The pressure to close the action so the aircraft makes the flight schedule is not a justification the JAG accepts.
  • ×DUI or conduct incident that surfaces in the service record during the Chief selection board review window. The Chief board reads every NJP, every adverse administrative action, every documented conduct incident in the service record. One DUI at AE1 does not just produce a temporary assignment problem — it follows the package through every subsequent Chief selection board for the rest of the career and answers the question the board is really asking about professional judgment and personal discipline. The AE1 who has kept a clean record to this point has too much built to lose it to one off-duty decision.
  • ×Going around the LCPO to the Maintenance Officer or Avionics Officer on a personnel issue, a maintenance dispute, or a work center resource problem. The chiefs talk, and the goat locker tracks when a petty officer routes outside the chain. The LCPO who finds out from the Maintenance Officer that his AE1 visited to discuss a work center problem the LCPO did not know about takes that information into the next eEVAL cycle and the next Chief selection board recommendation. The correct channel is always up through the chain; the AE1 who disagrees with the LCPO's decision on a maintenance matter brings it to the LCPO directly, presents the technical or safety basis clearly, and accepts the decision or escalates with the LCPO's awareness.
  • ×Allowing a Chief-board-threatening integrity gap to develop in the TMDE calibration program or the work center's maintenance documentation because the pace is heavy. The TMDE calibration overdue that sits on the bench for three weeks because 'we are in a workup surge' is the overdue that surfaces in the type commander aviation readiness inspection under the LPO's name. The Maintenance Officer does not explain the gap to the inspector; the LPO does. One ARI finding attributable to a documentation or calibration gap the LPO was responsible for is a Chief board conversation that does not go the LPO's way.
  • ×Treating the commissioning and warrant mentoring conversation as a check-in-the-block obligation rather than career counseling with consequence. The AE who applies to STA-21 without a realistic GPA, without a command endorsement the selection board can defend, and without understanding the ADSO that follows a commissioning selection wastes a competitive window and may make a career decision he regrets for twenty years. The AE1 who counsels honestly — including the hard conversation about whether the sailor's record is competitive — builds the trust that produces a selectee. The AE1 who tells everyone they have a shot produces disappointment and a sailor who questions why the application failed.

A Day in the Life

  • 0500-0545Wake up. Check NALCOMIS queue for any overnight maintenance actions, grounding discrepancy status changes, or duty-section actions that need AE1 awareness before quarters. If the flight schedule runs early sorties, the work center status for the first launch cycle needs to be in your head before the hangar.
  • 0545-0700Command PT. The LPO does not fall out. Aviation squadron PT runs the hangar deck apron, the flight line, or organized unit circuits. The AE1 who leads the work center's PT sets the physical readiness standard the junior AEs read — not from a slide, from watching what the LPO does on the PT grinder.
  • 0700-0800Hygiene, chow, into utilities. Pre-quarters: pull the NALCOMIS open work order summary, verify TMDE calibration status against the tracking document, review the flight schedule for AE-attributed grounding discrepancies that affect the first cycle. Build the department brief input before quarters, not during it.
  • 0800-0830Quarters. Maintenance Chief puts out the day's priorities. The AE1 has the floor for 90 seconds to brief the work center's maintenance status, the open discrepancies, the training block for the afternoon, and any personnel items affecting the day's production. Own the read-out — do not read from the clipboard, brief from knowledge.
  • 0830-1000Work center production management. Assign AE2 and AE3 to the morning's maintenance actions, verify tool sign-out is running against the correct sub-accounts, confirm QA has the work orders from the prior shift that are ready for inspection. On the hard technical actions — complex avionics fault isolation, an LRU troubleshoot that went to CND twice — the LPO is in the shop. Not supervising every step, but visible and technically engaged.
  • 1000-1100Department maintenance production review. This is where the LPO briefs the work center's FMC/PMC contribution, open grounding discrepancies, and TMDE calibration status to the Maintenance Chief and Maintenance Officer. Have the numbers current. Have the plan for every open discrepancy. Have the ETA. Briefs that require follow-up questions are briefs that were not prepared.
  • 1100-1200Administrative and eEVAL work. The eEVAL window is the year; the LPO who works eEVAL language in the daily quiet periods rather than the week before the close date produces better documents. NEC packet review, career counseling appointments if scheduled, MILPERSMAN lookup for any personnel actions in progress.
  • 1200-1300Tool and work center accountability before chow. Every active work order has a status; every signed-out tool sub-account is reconciled before the LPO leaves the work center. Chow.
  • 1300-1500Afternoon production. Phase/periodic inspection continuation, bench test queue, complex fault isolation. The LPO is engaged on the technically complex actions and visible on the floor — not sequestered in the LPO office, but not hovering over every AE3 either. Mentor the AE2 running the complex troubleshoot by asking questions that lead the reasoning, not by providing the answer.
  • 1500-1600Work center training block. AE2 NWAE study guidance, AE3 PQS progression, annual aviation safety training if in the cycle window, 2M program participation. The LPO documents training plan execution for the LCPO's weekly review — the training block that happens without documentation is the training block that does not exist on the Chief selection board packet.
  • 1600-1630End-of-day: NALCOMIS queue reviewed — all open actions have a documented status, all actions that closed today have complete entries, no work order sits in an ambiguous state over the evening. TMDE tracking current. Department brief input updated for the morning. LPO turn-over brief to the duty section.
  • 1630-1800Released most garrison days. Carrier workup, deployment surge, flight schedule extension, and duty section rotation change this significantly. On a carrier during surge ops, the AE1 may be on a 12-hour rotation managing two maintenance shifts and briefing the Maintenance Chief twice daily.
  • 1800-2100Personal time. Chief board PME and education requirements — NPC-tracked professional development, degree completion if in progress. eEVAL language drafting while the production events are fresh. NEC NAVADMIN review if a pipeline counseling is upcoming.
  • 2100-2200Personnel counseling touch-points if an AE2 or AE3 had a personal or professional issue during the day. The LPO's phone is on. Prep the department brief input for the morning's production review — the LPO who builds it the night before is never scrambling at quarters.

Weekly Cadence

The AE1 week runs on three simultaneous tracks: maintenance production, training administration, and the Chief board build. Monday opens with the work center's maintenance plan for the week — the LPO reconciles the NALCOMIS open work order status against the flight schedule priorities, reviews the TMDE calibration tracking for anything due in the next 14 days, and builds the work center input to the Maintenance Chief's Monday production review. The AE1 who arrives at Monday quarters with the week's maintenance priorities already sequenced and the department brief input ready has set the work center's production culture for the week. The AE1 who figures out the priorities at quarters has handed that initiative to the Maintenance Chief. Tuesday through Thursday are the production core. Phase and periodic inspection cards are running, bench test queues are active, QA is processing completed work orders from the prior day. The LPO's most consequential contribution during this block is not being the best individual maintainer in the work center — it is ensuring the work center's aggregate documentation quality, safety posture, and manpower deployment produce clean maintenance outputs the Maintenance Officer can brief without question marks. The LPO walks the work center and the bench twice daily, not to supervise every step but to be visible to the AE2 running a complex troubleshoot and to read whether the work center's pace and safety culture are where they should be. The TMDE calibration log gets reviewed Thursday — anything with an expiration inside 30 days gets a calibration request submitted before end of day. Friday is the administrative close and the Chief board build. NWAE study progress for the rated AEs is reviewed and documented. eEVAL language drafted for any production outcomes from the week that merit documentation. NEC pipeline status updated in the tracking record. LCPO counseling check-in — the AE1 who brings a documented weekly summary to the Friday LCPO counseling (maintenance metrics, training execution, pipeline status, any personnel actions in motion) is the AE1 the LCPO can brief up the chain without additional preparation. On deployment and during carrier workup surge, the Friday administrative work compresses into the off-shift windows — the maintenance production cycle does not pause for the training tracker, but the tracker does not disappear either. The AE1 who keeps the administrative record current under operational pressure is the AE1 the Chief selection board reads as operationally proven and professionally disciplined simultaneously.

Key Skills — How to Drill Each

  1. 01
    Run the work center's daily maintenance production — schedule, manpower, yellow-sheet accountability, NALCOMIS status, open discrepancy priority — clean enough that the Maintenance Chief's production brief does not need corrections.
    The Maintenance Chief's daily production brief pulls from the inputs the LPOs provide. Your input covers every open AE-attributed grounding discrepancy by tail number and system, every work order in progress with its expected completion time, your TMDE calibration status, and your manpower-available count for the day. Build the habit of reconciling these four elements at start-of-shift rather than pulling them together when the Maintenance Chief asks. The AE1 whose input arrives complete and accurate before the brief builds the reliability reputation the Maintenance Officer and the CO read when the Chief slate opens. The AE1 whose numbers require clarification from the bench every week is the LPO the Maintenance Chief cannot fully trust.
  2. 02
    Defend the work center's FMC/PMC/PMCS contribution at the department maintenance production review — know every aircraft with an open AE-attributed grounding discrepancy, know the ETA, and own the recovery plan.
    The department maintenance production review is not the place to discover what your work center's open discrepancies are — it is the place to brief them with specificity and a plan. For each open AE-attributed grounding discrepancy, know the system affected, the fault isolation status, the parts or technical publication status if required, the expected resolution time, and the recovery plan if the estimated time slips. When the Maintenance Officer asks 'what is the ETA on tail 405 CADC fault?' the answer is 'parts arrive tomorrow, installation and functional check runs approximately two hours, I expect the aircraft in a full FMC status by 1600' — not 'I'll check and get back to you.' Briefing with that specificity requires knowing the discrepancy status at the start of every day, not reading it off the board when the meeting starts.
  3. 03
    Manage TMDE calibration status for all work center bench test assets — no calibration overdue, no out-of-tolerance instrument in use, the calibration labels current at every weekly inspection.
    TMDE calibration management at the LPO level requires a tracking system, not a memory. Build a spreadsheet or use the work center's existing tracking format with every piece of bench test equipment listed, its calibration due date, and the calibration cycle length. Set a flag at 30 days before expiration so the calibration request to the ship's POML or the shore TMDE support facility goes in with enough lead time to avoid a gap. The calibration overdue that surfaces on the type commander ARI is always traceable to an LPO who did not have a tracking system — the calibration label expired while the AE2 was 'taking care of it.' At AE1, delegating execution is appropriate; delegating accountability is not.
  4. 04
    Write an eEVAL block the senior rater can defend at a wardroom board — measurable maintenance outcomes, named aircraft systems effects, language the Chief selection board actually reads.
    The eEVAL block that selects a sailor uses three elements: what the sailor accomplished (specific, measurable outcome), what the effect was on the command's mission (not abstract — named aircraft, named system, named operation), and a forceful recommendation with a specific next assignment. 'Maintained aircraft avionics systems' fails all three. 'Led AE work center through CVW-17 ARI — zero AE-attributed grounding discrepancies across 14 aircraft, 100% TMDE calibration compliance, named top 10% of peers in department — SELECT FOR CHIEF' passes all three. Draft the eEVAL language in the first week of the evaluation period from the outcomes you intend to produce by the end of it — then execute to the draft. The senior rater who receives an eEVAL with specific, defensible language signs it faster and defends it harder at the wardroom board.
  5. 05
    Mentor an AE2 through a type-specific NEC packet (NEC 6320, 6362, or platform-applicable) from intent to selection — and counsel honestly when the sailor's record or availability makes the path longer than they expect.
    The NEC mentoring conversation at LPO level has four steps: read the current source-rating NAVADMIN together, not the cached version on the share drive; verify the eligibility criteria against the sailor's actual record (time-in-rate, security clearance, physical fitness, NJP history); identify the realistic timeline including C-school length and the detailing reality for the billet that follows; and introduce the sailor to at least one AE1 or AE2 who completed that specific pipeline. The mentor who skips the honest conversation about eligibility gaps — the AE2 who needs a waiver, who is close on time-in-rate, who has a fitness issue — sends a sailor to the career counselor with expectations the packet will not meet. The sailor who gets the honest conversation and a realistic plan is the one who selects.
  6. 06
    Build and execute the work center's 30/60/90-day training plan — MRC quals, annual aviation safety courses, FOD prevention refreshers, 2M training if the command runs it — with reporting the Maintenance Chief can brief.
    The training plan is a document, not a mental list. Format it as a three-column table: the training requirement, the sailor(s) it applies to, and the deadline. Build the 90-day view at the start of every quarter by pulling the work center's qualification currency records, the command training schedule for annual requirements, and the LCPO's priorities for the cycle. Update it weekly and bring the updated version to the Maintenance Chief's weekly sync so the tracking is visible before it is asked for. The AE1 who produces a training plan the Maintenance Chief can brief without annotation is the LPO the Maintenance Chief trusts to manage the work center's readiness without supervision.

Manuals & References — What Chapters Matter

  • NAVAIR 01-1A-22 — Organizational Maintenance: Aircraft Avionics (verify the current series with your work center)
    At AE1 you are the work center's reference authority — the person the junior AEs come to when the tab does not have the answer, and the person the Avionics Officer calls when the technical question exceeds the manual's language. Know the quality assurance provisions, the documentation standards, and the wiring and connector maintenance procedures at a level that allows you to identify whether a work center practice is compliant or a drift from standard. When the type commander ARI inspector cites a maintenance practice against the instruction, you know which section applies before the inspector finishes the sentence.
  • NAVAIR 17-15BCE-1 series — aircraft-specific avionics and electrical maintenance manuals for your platform
    At AE1 you navigate the aircraft-specific MIM for the avionics and electrical systems your work center maintains without the Avionics Officer pulling the chapter. If your command operates more than one aircraft type, you are developing cross-platform familiarity — the AE1 who can address a fault on both the primary and the secondary platform without routing back to the applicable MIM for the answer is the LPO the Maintenance Chief uses when the work center is short an experienced AE on either side. Know the fault isolation logic of your platform's avionics systems well enough to verify that an AE2's troubleshoot is reasoning from the system's design, not swapping components.
  • OPNAVINST 3750.6S — Naval Aviation Safety Program
    At AE1 you brief safety at work center and department level and you know the mishap reporting chain from your work center to NAVSAFECEN without being told where to look. The hazard reporting system, the maintenance error reporting culture, the Class A/B/C/D mishap threshold distinctions, and the commander's safety program requirements are all in this instruction. When a maintenance action approaches a safety boundary — a near-miss, a deferred maintenance item that touches a safety-of-flight system, a work center practice that is drifting from the standard — you know the reporting obligation and you meet it before the Maintenance Officer has to ask.
  • OPNAVINST 3000.15A — Sustainable Aviation Readiness (SAR) / FMC-PMC-PMCS reporting standards
    Your work center's maintenance output feeds the readiness report the CO signs and the type commander tracks. At AE1 you know how FMC, PMC, and PMCS status is determined for your aircraft's avionics and electrical systems — which grounding discrepancies produce FMC-to-PMC status changes, which produce FMC-to-PMCS changes, and which the NATOPS identifies as ground-limiting faults. The LPO who can brief the FMC/PMC impact of an open discrepancy without the Avionics Officer re-running the numbers is the LPO the Maintenance Officer trusts with the readiness brief.
  • NAVPERS 18068 Vol II — NEC catalog, plus the current NEC source-rating NAVADMIN for the AE rate
    You build NEC packets off the current cycle. The catalog describes the NEC, the school pipeline, and the source rates. The NAVADMIN supplements the catalog with the active cycle's quotas, eligibility waivers, and any changes from the prior cycle. Pulling the NAVADMIN the morning of a NEC counseling session — not the version on the work center share drive from the last cycle — is the difference between counseling from current information and counseling from stale data that sends the sailor to the career counselor with wrong expectations.
  • MILPERSMAN — fluent in the articles governing enlisted personnel actions at the LPO visibility level
    At AE1 you are in the room or preparing the documentation for advancement, retention, NJP, administrative separation, and financial counseling actions involving sailors in your work center. The MILPERSMAN articles governing these actions determine the correct process, the documentation required, and the service member's rights at each step. The LPO who does not know the applicable article before initiating a personnel action creates procedural errors that delay the action and reflect on the chain's professionalism. Know the articles before the situation requires them.

Standards — How to Hit Each

  • Chief board package building with the LCPO's involvement from the first cycle — eEVAL profile defensible at wardroom level, Aviation Warfare Specialist device pinned.
    Talk to the LCPO in the first 30 days after pin-on about the Chief board timeline and the criteria the board reads. Build the eEVAL narrative from cycle one: specific, measurable outcomes; named avionics systems effects; pipeline output the senior rater can defend. The Aviation Warfare Specialist device should be on the blouse the day AE1 pins — if it is not, the PQS completion is the first priority, because the Chief board reads the gap. Ask the LCPO quarterly where you stand in the eEVAL ranking against peer AE1s and what specific gaps need to close before the next cycle. The LPO who has this conversation quarterly does not get surprised at the Chief selection board; the one who waits for annual counseling does.
  • Work center yellow-sheet closure rate, NALCOMIS documentation quality, and open grounding discrepancy status defensible at department maintenance production review — every cycle, no caveats.
    Set a weekly tracking standard for all three metrics: closure rate (work orders opened versus closed in the production week), documentation quality (QA returns as a percentage of submissions), and open grounding discrepancy status (tail number, system, fault isolation status, ETA). Review the metrics yourself before the Maintenance Chief's brief, not after. When the numbers show a trend — a work center with two consecutive weeks of elevated QA returns, a grounding discrepancy with an ETA that has slipped — address it before the trend surfaces in the production review. The LPO who identifies and reports problems with a plan is the LPO the Maintenance Officer trusts. The LPO who waits for the Maintenance Officer to identify them is the LPO the Maintenance Officer manages.
  • TMDE calibration program at 100% compliance — zero out-of-calibration instruments in use on the bench, audit trail intact.
    The TMDE calibration tracking is a direct accountability item for the LPO. Build the tracking document, set the 30-day warning flag, submit calibration requests before expiration, and verify the returned equipment's calibration status against the required cycle before returning it to the bench. The audit trail — calibration request dates, return dates, calibration certificate numbers — belongs in a folder the type commander inspector can review without the LPO being present. A single overdue instrument in use on the bench during an ARI is a finding; three overdue instruments is a systemic failure. The LPO who can show the inspector a complete tracking document with no gaps owns the finding before it happens.
  • Pipeline output — type NECs, 2M qualifications, commissioning packets — producing at least one selectee per year from the work center.
    Track the pipeline output the way the Maintenance Chief tracks FMC numbers — by name and expected completion date. Which AE2 is on which NEC C-school waiting list? Which AE3 is in the 2M program and at what phase? Which sailor has a commissioning or warrant application in progress and at what stage in the chain? Brief the pipeline status to the LCPO quarterly, not annually. The LPO whose pipeline produces selectees on a predictable annual cadence is the LPO the LCPO can point to when the type commander asks about talent development. One selectee per year is the floor; the competitive LPO produces two.
  • Chief selection board package building across the year — the package is not assembled the week before submission.
    The Chief selection board package reads the entire service record. The LCPO and the command review the package against the criteria the board uses: eEVAL profile and ranking, NEC qualifications, warfare devices, education, awards, and absence of adverse history. Building the package across the year means building the record across the year: completing PME requirements on schedule, ensuring the education transcript is current in NROWS, verifying that all awards from the evaluation period are posted to the service record before the window closes, and confirming with the LCPO that the record reads the way the narrative should. The package assembled in the final week before submission reflects whatever the record has accumulated. The package built deliberately over two or three cycles reflects a purpose.

Technical Mistakes — Concrete Consequences

  • Briefing aircraft systems FMC/PMC numbers you have not personally validated from the NALCOMIS summary.
    The Maintenance Officer at the production review is asking for current, accurate readiness status. The LPO who briefs numbers from the previous day's snapshot — or from what the AE2 told him at quarters without verification — is the LPO who gets the correction in front of the department. Once. After that, the Maintenance Officer does not trust the AE1's brief without verification, and the Maintenance Chief knows why. The Chief selection board reads the Maintenance Officer's input into the senior rater endorsement. Validate the NALCOMIS summary against the actual maintenance posture before every production brief — it takes ten minutes and it is the difference between being reliable and being managed.
  • Letting a trusted AE2 carry the TMDE calibration tracking without building the LPO's own visibility into the program.
    Delegating the TMDE tracking execution to an AE2 is appropriate management. Delegating the LPO's accountability for the program is not. When the trusted AE2 transfers, goes on leave, or simply misses an expiration, the overdue calibration surfaces under the LPO's name at the type commander inspection. The finding is not 'AE2 Jones let the calibration lapse' — it is a systemic maintenance management finding on the LPO's watch. Build the tracking visibility yourself, even if you do not execute every step: the LPO who can recite the calibration due dates without pulling the folder owns the program. The LPO who has to ask the AE2 does not.
  • Letting seniority override the technical authority of the NEC specialist in the work center on a platform-specific fault.
    The AE1 who has been in the rate for 12 years but has not maintained the NEC for the specific platform's advanced avionics system is not the technical authority in the work center on that system — the AE2 with the type NEC and two years of hands-on experience is. The LPO who overrides the NEC holder's troubleshoot with 'I've seen this before' and is wrong costs the work center the maintenance time to undo the incorrect action, a grounding discrepancy that did not need to happen, and the NEC holder's trust in the work center's technical culture. The chiefs notice who is honest about the limit of their technical knowledge. Let the specialist brief the system, stand behind the specialist, and be the credibility the recommendation carries up the chain.
  • Going around the LCPO to the Maintenance Officer or Avionics Officer on a work center resource decision, a personnel issue, or a technical disagreement.
    The maintenance chain runs through the chief. The LCPO who finds out from the Maintenance Officer that his AE1 visited without his knowledge takes that information into the next eEVAL period and the next Chief selection board recommendation — and the goat locker is a small community that does not forget. The correct process when the AE1 disagrees with the LCPO's decision is to bring the disagreement to the LCPO directly, with the technical or safety basis clearly stated, and accept the outcome or ask to escalate with the LCPO's awareness. The AE1 who routes around the LCPO once is the AE1 the LCPO cannot fully trust; the AE1 who does it twice is the AE1 whose Chief packet the LCPO does not endorse.
  • Treating the STA-21, LDO, or CWO mentoring conversation as a transactional check rather than honest career counseling.
    The AE who applies to STA-21 with a 2.6 GPA, a marginal class rank, and an LPO's endorsement that overstates the record's competitive strength wastes a selection window and may make a two-decade career decision based on an unrealistic expectation the LPO created. The selection board sees the record, not the cover letter. The AE1 who counsels honestly — including 'your record is not competitive at this cycle, here is what changes that in 18 months' — produces sailors who select when they apply because they apply when they are ready. The AE1 who tells everyone they have a shot to avoid the uncomfortable conversation produces disappointment and a sailor who questions whether the chain's counsel was ever honest.

Career Decisions at This Rank

  • Chief board submission timing — first eligible cycle versus building the package for a stronger cycle
    Eligibility for the Chief Petty Officer selection board is based on time-in-rate and eEVAL profile — and eligible does not mean competitive. The AE1 with one cycle of eEVAL data, no documented pipeline output, and a partially complete PME record is eligible but not competitive. The AE1 with three cycles of EP eEVAL ranking, annual NEC or commissioning selectees from the work center, a complete AWS device, and a command endorsement the CO signs without revision is competitive. The honest decision: talk to the LCPO about where the package stands against the selection board's competitive zone — not against the minimum eligibility criteria, against the competitive zone. The AE1 who submits prematurely to 'get a look' wastes a window and starts the board record with a non-select. The AE1 who submits in the cycle his package is competitive selects.
  • STA-21 / LDO / CWO application — the window and the honest record assessment
    The commissioning programs open at different points in the AE1 career. STA-21 requires meeting the academic and GPA thresholds and a competitive command endorsement; LDO requires the time-in-service and a record profile that the selection board reads as officer-quality leadership; CWO requires the technical depth and the warrant officer-specific qualifications the applicable community requires. The AE1 who is genuinely interested in commissioning should talk to LDOs and CWOs currently serving in the aviation maintenance community — not to get the recruiter's pitch, but to understand what the seat actually looks like, what the ADSO means for family planning, and whether the officer or warrant track matches the career they want to build. The AE1 who applies to satisfy the LPO mentoring requirement without genuine interest in the path is wasting a selection window that another sailor with real intent would use.
  • Re-enlistment or career transition — the Chief board versus the NAVAIR civilian or defense contractor market
    The AE1 in the Chief board competitive window has a specific choice: stay on the track to anchors or transition into the NAVAIR civilian (GS-12/13 electronics technician or avionics systems specialist), Fleet Readiness Center technician, or defense contractor market. The honest math: the AE1 with a type-specific NEC, the Aviation Warfare Specialist device, a security clearance, and a clean maintenance record is entering the NAVAIR civilian market at a GS-11/12 level depending on time and qualification. Against a Chief's pay and sea-shore rotation, that comparison is specific to the person's family situation, geographic flexibility, and whether the Chief career or the civilian career better serves the next 20 years. Pull the current Chief's pay table and the GS pay table for the locations where NAVAIR civilian billets concentrate — Patuxent River, Jacksonville, Lemoore, Norfolk, Point Mugu — and run the comparison honestly. The AE1 who transitions at 14 years to take a GS-12 at Pax River is making a financially and personally defensible decision; the AE1 who transitions because the workup tempo was heavy and then spends the next ten years watching his peers make E-7 and E-8 may feel differently in retrospect.
  • Graduate education — NPS, CCAF, or civilian degree program
    The Chief selection board reads education credit in the service record. An associate's degree from the Community College of the Air Force or Navy College counts; a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution counts more. The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is available to select senior enlisted candidates for specific programs. At AE1, the realistic path is completing an existing degree program through Tuition Assistance — the Navy covers up to $250 per semester hour — while the operational tempo allows. The AE1 who finishes the associate's or bachelor's during the E-6 years arrives at the Chief selection board with an education credit that closes a gap the board looks for. It is not a substitute for the eEVAL profile or the pipeline output, but it is a visible marker of professional development the board reads as discipline.
  • Shore duty billet selection — NMIOTC, NATTC schoolhouse instructor, or NAVAIR program office versus fleet continuation
    The AE1 shore duty billet is a Chief board influencer in a way the earlier shore tours were not. NATTC schoolhouse instructor duty at NAS Pensacola or NAS Lemoore produces eEVAL bullets that the Chief selection board reads as qualified to train the rate — and the schoolhouse LCPO writes the eEVAL for the AE1 who owns a block of instruction, not the LPO who shows up and keeps the chairs warm. NAVAIR program office enlisted support billets at Pax River produce a different kind of eEVAL — program management, technical working group participation, contractor liaison — that reads as broadening experience. Fleet continuation through another sea tour produces another operational eEVAL cycle, another deployment, another TMDE locker to manage. The honest question at this decision: which billet produces the Chief board package the LCPO can defend most convincingly?

How the Seat Varies by Unit Type

  • F/A-18E/F VFA strike fighter squadron (carrier air wing, deployment cycle)
    The VFA AE1 LPO manages the highest-complexity avionics work center in the fleet across the most demanding operational tempo in naval aviation. Carrier workup and deployment produce TMDE calibration and documentation quality pressure that distinguishes the LPO who built systems from the one who relies on the AE2's memory — on a carrier flight deck at surge ops with three grounding discrepancies and a type commander inspection in six weeks, the LPO who cannot brief the work center's status from knowledge (not clipboard) is the LPO the Maintenance Chief moves to a reduced role. The eEVAL opportunities at VFA are also the richest in the rate — complex avionics troubleshoots, flight deck maintenance management, deployment detachment accountability — and the AE1 who documents them specifically builds a Chief board package the selection board reads as operationally proven.
  • IMA Intermediate Maintenance Activity (avionics branch)
    The IMA AE1 manages an intermediate-level avionics branch rather than an organizational work center — the shop performs bench test and repair of LRUs pulled from fleet squadrons rather than aircraft-side maintenance. The work is technically intensive at the component and sub-assembly level, and the AE1 running an IMA avionics branch is managing a production flow that serves multiple squadrons simultaneously. The Chief board eEVAL from an IMA billet reads differently than from a fleet squadron — more 'managed a multi-customer repair pipeline' and less 'maintained aircraft through deployment' — and the LPO who is aware of that difference positions his work center's output in the eEVAL language accordingly. IMA billets are often shore-based and family-friendly; the trade is operational deployment credibility for production management depth.
  • HSM/HSC helicopter squadron (small work center, early detachment accountability)
    The helicopter squadron AE1 typically manages a smaller work center than a VFA shop — 8-12 AEs versus 15-20 — which means every performance metric is more individually visible. The detachment structure delivers genuine LPO-level accountability earlier in the career: an AE1 leading a two-or three-AE shipboard det is making every technical and safety call, briefing the ship's Maintenance Officer, and managing the det's maintenance record without a Maintenance Chief in the building. That independent accountability is exactly the experience the Chief selection board reads as LPO maturity. The eEVAL bullet for a deployed det AE1 reads more compellingly than for a garrison shop, and the Chief board selects on the content of the eEVAL, not the size of the work center.
  • NATTC NAS Pensacola schoolhouse (instructor duty)
    The NATTC AE1 instructor writes the next generation of AEs in the rate — the A-school curriculum, the lab evolution standards, the PQS qualification board. The schoolhouse eEVAL reads as qualification to train at the instruction level, not just to perform at the organizational level, and the Chief selection board values the breadth. The LCPO at NATTC is typically a Senior or Master Chief with direct visibility into the rate's qualification standards, and the AE1 who performs well at schoolhouse is performing in front of the most experienced evaluators in the rate. The limitation of schoolhouse duty for Chief board purposes is the absence of deployment operational eEVAL content — the AE1 with a schoolhouse tour and a fleet deployment tour in the record is better positioned than the one with schoolhouse alone.

What Good Looks Like at This Rank

The good AE1 is the LPO the Maintenance Chief trusts to run the avionics work center during a deployment detachment without daily check-ins — not because the Maintenance Chief has low expectations, but because the work center's maintenance posture has been demonstrably consistent for two consecutive deployment cycles and the Chief selection board packet tells the same story the maintenance production briefs do. The Maintenance Officer knows that when this AE1 says 'the work center is at 100% TMDE calibration compliance and I have one open grounding discrepancy with a parts ETA of 48 hours,' those numbers are current and the plan is real. His eEVALs produce NWAE selectees above the air wing average because the language is specific and the outcomes are measurable. The AE2 whose eEVAL reads 'maintained aircraft avionics to standard' does not select; the AE2 whose eEVAL reads 'sole AE troubleshooter for VFA-34's LITENING targeting pod integration fault — identified wiring harness discrepancy in the station 5 release bus, repaired per NAVAIR 01-1A-22, restored FMC status to three aircraft in 72-hour surge period — pick up AE1 immediately' has a document the senior rater can defend at the wardroom board. Building that language requires building the work center record across the year, not in the final two weeks of the evaluation window. His NEC pipeline produces. The LCPO can name at least one AE from this work center who selected for a type-specific NEC in the last 12 months. The commissioning conversation this AE1 has with his STA-21 or LDO candidates is honest — the sailor who is competitive gets the full-throated endorsement, the sailor who is not gets the honest conversation about what changes in 18 months and a plan to build toward the competitive window. The AE1 who produces one commissioning selectee every two or three years and one NEC selectee per year is the AE1 whose Chief packet the LCPO and the Maintenance Officer sign without needing to think about it.

Preview — The Next Rank

AECS (E-7, Chief Petty Officer) is the rank where the job changes more than at any other promotion in the rate. The anchors are not a pay raise — they are a fundamental identity shift. You are no longer in the work center's technical execution; you are in the goat locker, and the goat locker is a working leadership platform, not a senior petty officers' lounge. The LCPO runs the avionics or electrical maintenance department — 15-40 AEs, multiple LPOs, the department's aggregate maintenance posture, the type commander inspection readiness, the eEVAL program that picks the next AE1 and AECS slate from across the rate. You are the senior enlisted avionics voice at the Maintenance Department Head sync, and the Maintenance Officer asks you by name. The Chief Academy transition is real and it matters. The culture of the goat locker — the standards, the accountability, the relationship with the wardroom — is not obvious from the LPO seat, and the sailors who resist the transition because they are uncomfortable with the identity shift become the chiefs the mess has to manage. The ones who lean into it become the chiefs the mess depends on. The wardroom holds you to a standard of personal and professional conduct that has no peer in the enlisted spaces, and it is permanent — the Chief's posture on liberty is the Chief's posture in the formation. What you cannot see from the AE1 seat is how much of the AECS job is owning the enlisted execution standard for the whole department rather than your own work center, and how much the entire department's maintenance culture reads off whether the LCPO enforces the standard in person every day or only when the inspectors are inbound. Build the work center leadership habits and the safety ownership at AE1 that make the Chief transition a continuation of the standard you already carry — because on a flight deck loaded with aircraft and avionics systems, the cost of a LCPO who lets the standard slip is measured in readiness failures, inspection findings, and in the worst case, mishaps that follow the LCPO's name through every subsequent career document.
FAQ

AE E6 — Frequently Asked Questions

Q01What does a E6 AE (Aviation Electrician's Mate) actually do?
You are LPO of the squadron's avionics/electrical work center — 10-20 AEs, a section of the maintenance production schedule, the NEC pipeline, the training plan, and the weekly readiness input the Maintenance Chief briefs to the Maintenance Officer.
Q02What's the most important thing to know as a E6 AE?
AE1 (E-6) is the LPO seat — the rank where the avionics work center either runs to standard because you set it, or drifts because you let it.
Q03What does a typical day look like for a E6 AE?
Time-blocked day at the E6 AE rank tier: 0500-0545 Wake up. Check NALCOMIS queue for any overnight maintenance actions, grounding discrepancy status changes, or duty-section actions that need AE1 awareness before quarters. If the flight schedule runs early sorties, the work center status for the first launch cycle needs to be in your head before the hangar, 0545-0700 Command PT. The LPO does not fall out. Aviation squadron PT runs the hangar deck apron, the flight line, or organized unit circuits.…
Q04What mistakes get E6 AE soldiers fired or relieved?
Falsifying or tolerating falsification of a maintenance record, NALCOMIS entry, or TMDE calibration log. The maintenance record integrity requirement exists because falsified records kill people on the next flight, and the LPO whose name is on the work center's quality assurance program owns both the systemic failure and the individual incident. At AE1, maintenance record falsification is an immediate career-ending event: NJP or court martial, administrative separation,…
Q05What career decisions matter most at the E6 AE rank tier?
Chief board submission timing — first eligible cycle versus building the package for a stronger cycle — Eligibility for the Chief Petty Officer selection board is based on time-in-rate and eEVAL profile — and eligible does not mean competitive. The AE1 with one cycle of eEVAL data, no documented pipeline output, and a partially complete PME record is eligible but not competitive. The AE1 with three cycles of EP eEVAL ranking, annual NEC or commissioning selectees from the work center, a complete AWS device, and a command endorsement the CO signs without revision is competitive.…
Q06What's next after E6 for a AE (Aviation Electrician's Mate) in the Navy?
AECS (E-7, Chief Petty Officer) is the rank where the job changes more than at any other promotion in the rate.
Q07What manuals and regulations does a E6 AE need to know cold?
NAVAIR 01-1A-22 — Organizational Maintenance: Aircraft Avionics; you are the work center's reference authority and the one the junior AEs come to when the tab does not have the answer.; NAVAIR 17-15BCE-1 series — aircraft-specific avionics and electrical maintenance manuals for your platform; you navigate these without the Avionics Officer pulling the chapter for you.; OPNAVINST 3750.6S — Naval Aviation Safety Program;…

This playbook has no tips yet. Be the first to share what you know.

Published by the Honest MOS Editorial DeskVerified against DoD/.gov sourcesUpdated May 2026Editorial standards