Skip to main content
HonestMOS
●InvestigationsHow EUCOM shelved a tax break for 9,000 troops in Poland — for five years.→
←Back to STG Sonar Technician (Surface) — overview, pay, training, civilian translation, reviews
STGE6

Sonar Technician (Surface)

E-6 (Staff Sergeant) · Navy

E1–E3E-4E-5E-6E-7E8–E9
HEADS UP

STG1 is the LPO paygrade. The Chief is editing your Chief packet and the ASW Officer calls you by name before calling the division officer. Every eEVAL cycle now builds or degrades the packet. Run the division clean, build the STG2s, and brief the wardroom correctly — those are the three things the Chief board reads in the narrative.

The Honest MOS Read
Petty Officer First Class, LPO of the sonar division or a major subsection of it — the hull sonar work center, the towed array and undersea fire control section, or the integrated AN/SQQ-89(V) suite maintenance division — with 8-20 STGs in your accountability and a direct line to the ship's ASW readiness posture. The ASW Officer calls you by name when there is a problem in the sonar division because the LCPO has taught him to, and the STG2s in the division read the work center's climate off how you carry yourself at quarters every morning. You write four to six eEVALs per cycle — the ones that pick who advances to STG2 and who competes for the next NEC pipeline. You build the sonar division's training plan, defend the ASW readiness metrics at the weekly combat systems readiness brief (system availability, deferred maintenance age, PMS completion rate, towed array operational hours, LAMPS coordination qualification status), manage calibrated test equipment and classified sonar documentation accountability at the LPO level, and mentor at least one STG per year into an advanced NEC pipeline, an LDO/CWO packet, or the civilian defense and federal market. You also run the work center's portion of every Type Commander ASW assessment, COMPTUEX readiness cycle, and INSURV inspection — and your AAR is what the ASW Officer briefs up the chain after the assessment closes. The Chief board is the subtext of the entire STG1 paygrade. The LCPO is building your packet from the first eEVAL cycle at STG1. The elements are well-known: eEVAL profile across all paygrades, advanced NEC, warfare qualifications, leadership positions documented, awards record, education. The STG1 who does not understand that the Chief board reads the pattern of the eEVAL profile — not just the last three eEVALs — is the STG1 who arrives at the board window with a thin packet and an explanation. The work starts at pin-on. The LPO position is the first real leadership seat in the rate — not leadership as a concept, leadership as a daily practice. The STG2 and STG3 who watch you handle a Type Commander ASW assessment finding that appeared in your work center's documentation are deciding what the standard is in this division. The LCPO who walks up behind you during that conversation is watching whether you own the finding or explain it away. Own it. Fix it. Brief the work center supervisor the corrective action before he asks. The work center has that moment every few months and every one of them either builds or erodes the trust the LCPO has placed in your LPO position.
Career Arc
  • 01Pin STG1 — LPO billet either immediate or within 12 months; the eEVAL profile starts its Chief-board-relevant accumulation.
  • 02Own the sonar division's LPO position — write eEVALs, defend readiness metrics at combat systems brief, manage calibration and classified documentation accountability.
  • 03Build the Chief board packet in parallel: advanced NEC held and current, warfare qualifications current, awards record documented, education credit via CLEP/DANTES or college program.
  • 04Mentor one STG per year to advanced NEC, LDO/CWO packet, or civilian credential completion.
  • 05Lead a Type Commander ASW assessment or INSURV sonar inspection as the senior enlisted ASW voice — the AAR is what the ASW Officer briefs up the chain.
  • 06Submit the Chief Petty Officer selection board packet with the LCPO's eye on every line — eEVAL profile, warfare device, NEC, awards, leadership positions documented.
  • 07Pin STGC (E-7) via the Chief Petty Officer Selection Board — the milestone the sonar community defines the career by.
Common Screwups
  • ×Briefing sonar readiness numbers you have not personally validated against the 3-M system and the PMS schedule. The ASW Officer catches the discrepancy once and your Chief packet carries the pattern permanently — senior leadership does not forget the LPO who briefed numbers that did not match the system.
  • ×Letting a senior STG2 carry calibrated test equipment or classified documentation accountability because 'he is your guy.' When he transfers mid-deployment, the accountability gap surfaces under your name at the next ISIC assessment.
  • ×Going around the LCPO to the ASW Officer or XO on a technical or personnel issue. The combat systems chain runs through the chief. The command master chief hears about it within the watch rotation and the next Chief slate reads the pattern.
  • ×Treating the LDO/CWO commissioning or civilian credential mentoring as a checkbox conversation. The STGs you credential and commission at STG1 build the surface ASW workforce for the next decade — counsel honestly about every path, including when the path is wrong for that specific sailor.
  • ×NJP, DUI, fraternization, or financial mismanagement at STG1 — the Chief board is permanently closed. There is no recovery at this paygrade. The community is small enough that the read propagates to every ship in the squadron within months.

A Day in the Life

  • 0500-0545Reveille. Review the plan of the day before quarters. Any system anomalies overnight that need a work center supervisor brief before the day starts?
  • 0545-0645Command PT. STG1 runs with the division — you set the pace on run days and the standard on strength days. The LCPO notices which LPO is leading the formation from the front.
  • 0645-0800Hygiene, breakfast, pre-quarters review. Walk the work center before quarters — any deferred maintenance visible, any test equipment out of position?
  • 0800-0815Division quarters. You put out the LPO's plan of the day; the LCPO backs you. Accountability, maintenance priorities, any readiness metric changes from overnight.
  • 0815-1130Work center management — review STG2 maintenance section progress, walk the equipment spaces, review any new 3-M entries that need QA submission, handle any personnel issues that came up overnight. One hour of Chief packet construction work if the watchbill allows.
  • 1130-1230Lunch. LPO eats in the mess deck with the STG2s. Not in the goat locker — not yet. Section sync over lunch: what did the morning produce, what is the afternoon plan?
  • 1230-1500Combat systems readiness brief input preparation — pull the 3-M data yourself. Brief validation before the ASW Officer's 1500 sync. Division training block if the plan of the week scheduled it.
  • 1500-1600Combat systems or ASW readiness brief participation as the LPO representative. Chief packet work — eEVAL drafts, award package, warfare qualification PQS item completion.
  • 1600-1630End-of-day work center closeout. Deferred maintenance status to the work center supervisor. STG2 section progress updates. Any personnel issues flagged before the LCPO's end-of-day sweep.
  • 1630-2200Released if not on watch. Gym, study, family call (underway). The STG1 who is visibly squared away in personal fitness and self-development is the STG1 the LCPO highlights in the narrative.
  • Type Commander ASW assessment / INSURV inspectionYou are the senior enlisted voice for the sonar division assessment. Walk the team through the work center with clean documentation in hand. Be prepared to explain every deferred maintenance entry, every calibration exception, every classified documentation audit result. The AAR you provide the ASW Officer after the team departs is the one he briefs the commodore.

Weekly Cadence

The LPO week is structured around two rhythms: the division's readiness preparation cycle and the command's administrative cycle. Monday is the heaviest planning day — the LCPO's Monday morning sync sets the week's priorities, and you build the division's execution plan around those priorities before the morning maintenance block starts. Tuesday through Thursday are execution: maintenance, training, watch rotations, PQS sign-offs, NEC counseling. Thursday is typically the divisional training day; the LPO either runs the technical training block or assigns the qualified STG2 to run it. Friday is the plan-of-the-week-out and the weekly combat systems readiness brief where the LPO's numbers are on the line. The quarterly cycle runs on top of the weekly rhythm: eEVAL boards, Type Commander assessment preparation, NEC pipeline nomination cycles, and Chief board packet review with the LCPO. The LPO who manages both rhythms simultaneously — staying ahead of the weekly readiness brief and building the quarterly deliverables — is the LPO the LCPO describes as self-directed at the command master chief sync. Deployment and COMPTUEX cycles collapse the garrison rhythm into watch-rest-watch. The division's readiness brief happens daily instead of weekly; the eEVAL and administrative work happens in port calls and the watch-off windows. The Chief board packet work does not stop during deployment — the LPO who built the habit of working on it in garrison carries it underway without thinking about it.

Key Skills — How to Drill Each

  1. 01
    Run the sonar division training plan that produces qualified watchstanders, NEC-progressing technicians, and NWAE-advancing STGs without the LCPO tracking every milestone.
    The training plan is a living document, not a quarterly submission. Build it at the start of each deployment or exercise cycle: what watch qualifications are pending, what NEC pipelines are open, what NWAE cycles are coming up, and what technical training gaps appeared in the last COMPTUEX debrief. Review progress weekly at the section sync — not monthly. The STG who is behind pace at the midpoint of the cycle is correctable; the one who is behind at the end is a counseling worksheet that consumes LCPO attention that should be going to more productive work. The LCPO who never has to ask about the division's training status at the combat systems brief is the LCPO who mentions the LPO's name favorably at the command master chief sync.
  2. 02
    Defend the division's ASW readiness metrics — PMS completion rate, towed array operational availability, system fault aging, NEC billet fill status — at combat systems readiness brief level without the ASW Officer rewriting your numbers.
    Pull the 3-M system data yourself the morning of the brief. Cross-reference the deferred maintenance log, the calibration due-date tracker, and the classified documentation audit log. The ASW Officer should be able to quote your numbers at the DESRON commander's brief without rewriting them because he verified them with you the morning prior. The LPO who walks into the brief with numbers he has not personally validated against the system is the LPO who gets corrected in front of the wardroom — one time. After that, the ASW Officer pulls his own numbers.
  3. 03
    Manage calibrated test equipment accountability and classified sonar documentation at the LPO level — chain-of-custody, calibration due-dates, access-log reconciliation — clean at every no-notice inspection.
    Build a personal accountability log that mirrors the work center's official records: who has what test equipment, when calibration is due, when the last access-log reconciliation was completed, and whether the classified sonar documentation inventory matches the official count. Walk the locker yourself once a month without the STG2 knowing you are doing it. The no-notice inspection that finds a gap under your work center's name is the inspection that the LCPO writes up — and the LPO who found the gap on his own monthly walk is the LPO with a corrective action in hand before the inspection team finishes writing.
  4. 04
    Operate as the senior STG technical voice during a Type Commander ASW assessment, COMPTUEX, or INSURV inspection — including the call to brief the department head when the ship's sonar readiness has actually shifted.
    The Type Commander assessment team is reading your division's documentation, watching your watch-standers, and evaluating whether your readiness metrics match reality. The senior enlisted voice who walks the team through the work center with a clean 3-M record, a current calibration log, and a coherent maintenance narrative is the voice the team head calls out favorably in the assessment debrief. The assessment finding that catches the LPO off guard is the one he did not find himself first — and the LCPO expects you to have found it.
  5. 05
    Translate a complex multi-system sonar fault into ASW capability language the ASW Officer and the TAO both understand — not tech-manual jargon, a clean assessment with a timeline and a backup mode.
    Practice the brief before you walk into the wardroom. 'The AN/UYS-2 EMSP processing chain has a fault in the signal processing assembly that reduces passive sonar throughput by approximately one-third. We are operating in degraded mode using the backup processing path. The impact is reduced passive detection range against quiet targets in the low-frequency band. Repair is estimated at 36 hours pending a component from the supply system. We will notify the ASW coordinator of the capability gap and recommend the LAMPS crew adjust their sonobuoy pattern accordingly during the interim.' That is the brief. Not 'the signal processor is down and we are working on it.' The ASW Officer needs to make operational decisions with your input.
  6. 06
    Mentor an STG2's NWAE cycle, NEC pipeline packet, or LDO/CWO commissioning packet from idea to selection — and counsel honestly when the path is wrong for the sailor.
    The honest counseling is the hard part. The STG2 who wants the SARC pipeline but does not have the PST scores, the STG2 who wants the submarine IDC track but whose family situation will not survive 60-day patrols, the STG2 who wants the LDO board but whose eEVAL profile has a two-year gap from a difficult sea tour — counsel the reality, not the aspiration. The LPO who tells every STG2 what they want to hear sends sailors into selection pipelines they are not competitive for, and that sailor comes back with a failed selection and a narrowed set of options. The LPO who counsels honestly builds the sailors who actually select.

Manuals & References — What Chapters Matter

  • OPNAVINST 4790.4 series — Ships' 3-M Systems Procedures Manual
    At LPO level you are fluent across the QA, tool control, calibration, and documentation provisions — not just the maintenance steps. The work center supervisor holds you accountable for the provisions that govern everything your section produces. Know the ISIC assessment criteria and the Type Commander maintenance metric definitions before you brief the ASW Officer.
  • NAVSEA technical manuals for your ship's AN/SQQ-89(V) components — hull sonar, towed array, EMSP, display system
    You are the technical authority the ASW Officer signs behind when the work center writes up a discrepancy. The STG2 who briefs the Weapons Officer a sonar system fault has the LPO as the technical backup; the LPO who cannot answer the department head's follow-on question undermines the STG2's credibility and his own.
  • NWP 3-21 series — Navy Anti-Submarine Warfare doctrine
    At LPO level you are expected to brief tactical ASW implications of a sonar system casualty — not just maintenance status. The ASW Officer and the TAO need to know what the degraded system means for detection geometry, prosecution capability, and the coordinated ASW picture with the LAMPS crew. Know the doctrine well enough to translate the maintenance event into operational language.
  • OPNAVINST 3120.32 — Standard Organization and Regulations of the U.S. Navy (SORM)
    The SORM is the organizational standard the CO and XO hold your division to on every inspection. At LPO level you are implementing the SORM in your division's daily organization — watch qualification programs, training plans, PMS execution, calibration accountability. Know it better than the division officer.
  • MILPERSMAN — articles governing enlisted promotions, retention, separation, and NJP
    At STG1 you are in the room for the conversations that happen at LPO visibility: the sailor who is behind on PQS and the LCPO wants to counsel, the STG3 who had a DUI on liberty, the STG2 whose re-enlistment window is closing and the LCPO is asking you to weigh in. Know the relevant MILPERSMAN provisions before you are in that room.
  • NAVPERS 18068 Vol II plus the current NEC source-rating NAVADMIN — current cycle
    You are building NEC pipeline packets for STG2s. Pull the current source-rating NAVADMIN every time a new cycle publishes — not the version on the shared drive from 18 months ago. The pipeline that was open last cycle may have changed quotas, prerequisites, or billet structure. The LPO who counsels off current data is the LPO the detailer calls when a sailor's packet is aligned with reality.

Standards — How to Hit Each

  • Chief board packet under construction with the LCPO's eye on every line — eEVAL profile, warfare qualifications, advanced NEC, awards record.
    The packet is built over years, not months. At STG1 pin-on, ask the LCPO for a formal Chief board packet review — what is strong, what needs development, what is missing. Map the work: which warfare qualification is missing, which NWAE advancement study plan needs documentation, which award package is pending. Update the packet review every six months. The LCPO who submits the packet at the board deadline is not building it the week before submission — the STG1 who keeps the packet current makes the LCPO's job possible.
  • Division QA rework rate, calibration compliance, and classified documentation audit posture defensible at ASW Officer and CO level — every cycle.
    Pull the numbers yourself before the LCPO asks for them. The division's QA rework rate over the last 90 days, the number of test equipment items with calibration due in the next 30 days, the last classified documentation inventory reconciliation date and result — know these cold. The LPO who briefs the ASW Officer with current numbers he has personally validated is the LPO the ASW Officer trusts. The one who hedges at the brief is the one the ASW Officer double-checks.
  • Advanced NEC maintained and current — verify currency requirements against the current source-rating NAVADMIN.
    The NEC is not just a credential you earn once. Some NEC codes have currency requirements — refresher C-schools, annual qualification renewals, or periodic re-certification. Pull the current source-rating NAVADMIN for the NEC you hold and verify the currency requirements. The LPO who lets an NEC lapse is the LPO who cannot fill the billet the ship needs filled.
  • Pipeline output — advanced NEC, commissioning, or federal civilian / defense contractor credential — producing at least one completion or selectee per year from your division.
    Track your mentoring output the same way you track maintenance metrics. At the start of each year, identify the sailors in your division who are in active pipeline tracks — NEC selection pending, LDO/CWO application submitted, DANTES/CLEP college coursework in progress. Track progress monthly. The LPO whose division produces selectees and completions is the LPO the LCPO highlights in the eEVAL narrative; the one whose mentoring track is empty is the LPO whose narrative has nothing to say about leadership development.
  • Chief Petty Officer selection board preparation built across the year — not a week-before-submission sprint.
    The board packet is a document the convening authority reads. Spelling errors, blank fields, and thin narrative sections communicate that the sailor does not value the process. The LCPO who submits a clean, well-supported packet for his STG1 submits it because the STG1 kept it current. Build each section of the packet at the start of the STG1 paygrade: eEVAL profile summary, warfare qualification list, NEC history, awards record, education transcript. Update each section every six months. The packet is as strong as the STG1's daily record — not as strong as the LCPO's weekend editing session.

Technical Mistakes — Concrete Consequences

  • Briefing sonar readiness numbers you have not personally validated against the 3-M system and the PMS schedule.
    The ASW Officer catches the discrepancy at the weekly readiness brief — either he pulled the 3-M data himself or the DESRON commodore called a number that did not match what the ship reported. The LPO who briefed unvalidated numbers gets corrected in front of the wardroom. The LCPO's Chief board narrative carries 'did not know his own numbers' for the rest of the STG1 paygrade.
  • Letting a senior STG2 hold calibrated test equipment or classified sonar documentation accountability without LPO-level visibility.
    When the STG2 transfers mid-deployment or is reassigned to a different watch section, the accountability gap surfaces at the next ISIC maintenance assessment under your work center's name. The corrective action assigns the gap to the last accountable LPO — that is you. The ISIC assessment finding is in the ship's readiness record and the LCPO explains it at the next command review.
  • Going around the LCPO to the ASW Officer or XO on a system casualty, personnel action, or administrative issue.
    The combat systems chain runs through the chief — without exception. The ASW Officer who receives a brief from the LPO without the LCPO's awareness calls the LCPO within the hour. The command master chief hears about it by end of watch. The next Chief board is read with the pattern visible: a STG1 who bypassed the chain is a Chief who will bypass the chain, and the Chief Mess does not want that sailor.
  • Confusing seniority with current technical depth on a new AN/SQQ-89 software baseline or configuration update.
    The STG2 who just returned from C-school on the latest system build knows the new configuration better than the LPO who has been at sea for the last 18 months. The LPO who acknowledges the gap and lets the STG2 brief the wardroom is the LPO who is honest; the one who bluffs through a technical question on a configuration he has not studied is the one the ASW Officer stops trusting on technical matters. Own the gap. Fill it. The LCPO sees who is honest about it.
  • Treating commissioning program or civilian credential mentoring conversations as transactional checkboxes.
    The STGs you counsel at STG1 are making career decisions with ten-year consequences. The LPO who tells an STG2 what he wants to hear on a commissioning path that does not match the sailor's competitive profile sends that sailor into a selection process unprepared. When the selection fails, the STG2 comes back to the LPO — and the conversation about why the path was wrong for him should have happened before the application, not after the rejection.

Career Decisions at This Rank

  • Which Chief board cycle to submit — first eligible cycle or building the packet further
    The first-eligible Chief board submission is not always the right call. The LCPO who tells you your packet is ready for the first eligible cycle is giving you the honest assessment; the one who says 'maybe wait a cycle' is giving you the honest assessment about a thinner record. The eEVAL profile has to cover the entire career — including any below-expectation years at earlier paygrades — and the packet narrative has to address the gaps, not avoid them. Submit when the packet can defend itself, not when you are technically eligible.
  • LDO / CWO Surface Warfare application — is the record competitive and does the path fit?
    The Surface Warfare LDO (Limited Duty Officer) and CWO (Chief Warrant Officer) programs have specific eligibility requirements — time in service, time in rate, eEVAL profile, performance record. The STG1 who has a Chief board packet that is strong enough to be competitive is usually the STG1 whose record is also competitive for LDO/CWO. The decision is whether you want to lead sailors as an officer or as a chief — the career paths diverge significantly in the first five years after commissioning. Talk to senior LDOs and CWOs in the sonar and surface warfare community, not just the career counselor at the command.
  • Post-Navy civilian market preparation — when to start and what to build
    The defense contractor and federal civilian market for experienced surface ASW sonar technicians is real and has been paying senior technicians well at the senior chief / master chief equivalent civilian grade. NAVSEA PMS 485 (Undersea Surveillance), Raytheon Intelligence and Space sonar program support, L3Harris Ocean Systems, and SCSC civilian positions are the primary pathways. Start the federal civilian application process — USAJobs resume, OPM federal application package — before you leave the Navy, not after. The GS-09 to GS-12 entry points for technicians with a Secret clearance and advanced NEC are competitive but the applications take months to process. The STG1 who retires with nothing prepared is the STG1 who works minimum wage for six months while the federal civilian application is being processed.

How the Seat Varies by Unit Type

  • DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer — primary STG1 LPO billet
    DDG LPO duty at STG1 is the tour that builds or fails the Chief packet. Full ASW mission area, COMPTUEX cycles, deployment. The sonar division LPO on a deploying DDG is in the ASW Officer's orbit every day; the readiness brief is weekly; the Type Commander assessment is every 18-24 months. Run this tour cleanly and the Chief board packet writes itself.
  • CG-47 Ticonderoga-class cruiser LPO
    The cruiser's senior ASW platform role means the LPO standards are higher and the readiness brief audience includes the strike group commodore's staff. The eEVAL competition is tighter. The STG1 who performs as LPO on a cruiser has a packet the Chief board takes seriously.
  • DESRON staff billet (destroyer squadron)
    DESRON staff billets for STG1s exist in the squadron's ASW readiness and training functions. Lower OPTEMPO than a ship LPO billet; different scope — you are supporting multiple ships' sonar readiness rather than one ship's division. The Chief board reads DESRON staff billets as leadership-broadening assignments; they are not as operationally intensive as ship LPO tours but they are recognized.
  • NTTC Dam Neck / SCSC shore billet between sea tours
    Shore LPO billets at training commands give the STG1 technical depth and a teaching portfolio that feeds divisional training when returning to the fleet. The Chief board reads the shore billet favorably as long as the ship LPO tour was strong — a shore billet without a strong ship LPO tour is a thin packet.

What Good Looks Like at This Rank

The good STG1 is the LPO the LCPO trusts to run the sonar division through a deployment without daily check-ins. When the weekly combat systems readiness brief runs, his metrics are current, validated against the system, and briefed without caveats or hedging. When the Type Commander ASW assessment team walks through the work center, the documentation is clean, the calibration log is current, the classified sonar documentation inventory reconciles, and the senior STG2 briefs the assessors while the LPO stands behind him ready to answer the follow-on. His eEVALs are the ones the LCPO submits without substantial rewriting — clear, specific, tied to observable performance metrics, not character traits. The STG2s in his section are advancing on schedule, holding NECs, and have documented pipeline tracks on file in the LPO's counseling records. At least one of them has a commissioning packet in progress or an advanced NEC C-school slot confirmed for the next cycle. The LCPO is building the Chief board packet at every quarterly review. When the board submission deadline arrives, the packet is clean — eEVAL profile across the career reads as a consistent upward trajectory, advanced NEC is held and current, warfare qualifications are complete, awards record is documented, education credit is reflected. The department head signs the CO's endorsement without a question. The STG1 who earns that packet is the one who was running the division the way the LCPO described it at the first STG1 section sync — not for the evaluation period, but every day since pin-on.

Preview — The Next Rank

STGC (E-7) is the gold-fouled anchors, the goat locker, and the moment the job changes more than at any other promotion in the rate. The Chief board selected you not because you were the best STG1 — it selected you because the board determined you were ready to sit in the mess and enforce the enlisted standard on behalf of the wardroom and the commanding officer. That is a different job than LPO. As LCPO of the sonar division, you own enlisted ASW execution from the deckplate up. You write Chief-quality eEVALs that pick the next STG1 and STGC slate. You sit at the combat systems readiness brief and the ASW training sync as the senior enlisted ASW voice — not the LPO, the chief. The ASW Officer asks you by name before asking the division officer on a system casualty. You walk the sonar shack and the towed array handling space during COMPTUEX and find the broken procedure before the inspector does. The goat locker is a working leadership platform. The STGSNs and STG3s in the division watch you enter the mess every morning and decide whether the 3-M documentation standard and the sonar watch-standing standard are real or performative. They decide based on what you do during the hardest evolutions of the deployment, not during the homeport weeks. The Chief who earns the mess makes it real every day.
FAQ

STG E6 — Frequently Asked Questions

Q01What does a E6 STG (Sonar Technician (Surface)) actually do?
You are LPO of the sonar division or a major subsection of it — the hull sonar work center, the towed array and underwater fire control section, or the integrated ASW suite maintenance division — running 8-20 STGs and a piece of the ship's overall ASW readiness.
Q02What's the most important thing to know as a E6 STG?
STG1 is the LPO paygrade.
Q03What does a typical day look like for a E6 STG?
Time-blocked day at the E6 STG rank tier: 0500-0545 Reveille. Review the plan of the day before quarters. Any system anomalies overnight that need a work center supervisor brief before the day starts?, 0545-0645 Command PT. STG1 runs with the division — you set the pace on run days and the standard on strength days. The LCPO notices which LPO is leading the formation from the front, 0645-0800 Hygiene, breakfast, pre-quarters review. Walk the work center before quarters — any deferred maintenance visible, any test equipment out of position?, 0800-0815 Division quarters.…
Q04What mistakes get E6 STG soldiers fired or relieved?
Briefing sonar readiness numbers you have not personally validated against the 3-M system and the PMS schedule. The ASW Officer catches the discrepancy once and your Chief packet carries the pattern permanently — senior leadership does not forget the LPO who briefed numbers that did not match the system; Letting a senior STG2 carry calibrated test equipment or classified documentation accountability because 'he is your guy.' When he transfers mid-deployment,…
Q05What career decisions matter most at the E6 STG rank tier?
Which Chief board cycle to submit — first eligible cycle or building the packet further — The first-eligible Chief board submission is not always the right call. The LCPO who tells you your packet is ready for the first eligible cycle is giving you the honest assessment; the one who says 'maybe wait a cycle' is giving you the honest assessment about a thinner record. The eEVAL profile has to cover the entire career — including any below-expectation years at earlier paygrades — and the packet narrative has to address the gaps, not avoid them. Submit when the packet can defend itself,…
Q06What's next after E6 for a STG (Sonar Technician (Surface)) in the Navy?
STGC (E-7) is the gold-fouled anchors, the goat locker, and the moment the job changes more than at any other promotion in the rate.
Q07What manuals and regulations does a E6 STG need to know cold?
OPNAVINST 4790.4 series — Ships' 3-M Systems Procedures Manual; fluent across the QA, tool control, and documentation provisions you enforce.; NAVSEA technical manuals for your ship's AN/SQQ-89(V) components — you are the technical authority the ASW Officer signs behind on work center discrepancies.; NWP 3-21 series (ASW doctrine) — at LPO level you are expected to brief tactical ASW implications of a sonar system casualty, not just the maintenance status.

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