i'm a usaf jet engine mechanic and i'm going to join the uscg soon. i heard you guys get to join in w/ law enforcement missions quite often, is that true? also what exactly does your job entail from day to day?

MK's do a lot of different stuff, your day-to-day activities differ from unit to unit, and by what paygrade you are.

I can't speak for my shipmates, but my day to day activities are normally preventative maintenance, other maintenance, maybe some paperwork, or i'm underway on one of our small boats.

As for as LE goes, never done it, never had a desire, I'm sure someone will chime in.

MK's probably have the widest variety of jobs out of all the rates. At the small boat station, I was a bm/mk. Having to run engineer on a small boat means you are the most experienced crewman on the boat, meaning you have to know the navigation and how to handle the small boat should the coxswain get hurt. When I made OOD it became more of a pain to know BM knowledge in my opinion. Having to pass SAR fundamental test, knowing all about search patterns and running SAR cases from the station. All that while still doing the preventative maintenance on the small boats and station grounds. Personally, my station had one of the biggest plots of land in the CG, so mowing lawns in the summer time took priority when we lost our lawn contract.

Currently am on a '110 in the northeast. The number one mission out here is LMR, which is living marine resources (fisheries). We get underway quite a bit, and we focus mainly on LMR. When we aren't doing LMR, we are just patrolling, doing LNG escorts, gun shoots when we get the chance, fish for fun, etc. Inport the days are primarily focused on preventative maintenance. Changing fuel filters, oil changes, cleaning strainers, etc.

For the law enforcement, at the small boat stations, they are pretty busy depending where you are. At my station I qualified BO breaking in, which I hear now is going by the wayside, so you will be given the opportunity to attend BTM and BO schools. But in the summer we ran 95 percent recreational boardings. That was cool because you got to see different people and for the most part they were all nice. Got a few BUI's, nothing too special though. Running LMR though, I enjoy a little bit better as the BO. There are so many regulations that the fishermen have to follow, both on the safety side of the boat, and the fishing gear itself. And then you get to count the fish, check the sizes of the fish, search through barrels or totes full of lobster to check the sex and to see if they are carrying eggs. But the job is more satisfying to me on the LMR side, because when you get a violation, you know you are preventing something illegal. Not saying that Recreation boardings are pointless, but I just personally like LMR better. Thats pretty much 2 types of units in a nutshell. Underway should definitely be your first choice should you be given the choice. Get your sea time early and keep getting it, it will only help you in the long run.

thanx for taking the time to answer in detail. as i said i'm a jet engine mech., our day 2 day maint. gets and got old quick. out of a scale of 1-10, what would you score your job for being a satisfying career?

I would rate MK at a ten for job satisfaction, at least on a ship. In my mind MKs belong on ships everything in our course matieral is on them. I just came off a 378 and in three years I still got great job satisfaction everyday. It was tiring sometimes but there is always something new to work on. I was at a station for a while as an E3 and wasn't too impressed but that was before I was an MK. Onboard cutters you do alot with fueling helos during LE. Then with the small boats once you are qualified boat crew and boarding team member you are able to do the boardings on ships out at sea. I was always too involved in the fueling of the helos and of the ship to get involved in the boardings, but even if you don't get involved in the LE like I said there is always something to work on. I hope this helps in your questions about MK. I have been in for a little over four years and am about to make E6. If you do end up going MK I suggest trying to get a ship for your first unit, you will learn your entire rate hands on which is the best way at least for me. Good luck

MK is definately an underway rating. on land it can get kind of redundant. but all in all its not too bad.me personally, i can't wait to go afloat. i think MK is probably the best rating for the sole reason you can pretty much do anything you really want to in the cg...we're everywhere. i would give MK 8.5 out of 10.

If you like Law Enforcement you will probably NEVER hate any billet you could get.

Some places its mandatory (my unit) others not... but yeah generally agree... underway is where its at for mk's, its where you learn your rate.

thanx for the info... what happens when you're not afloat? do you still do cutter maintenance? also, what's the overall morale like in the uscg and as an MK?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: atx1,

When your on land you would either be at a Small boat station, Maritime securty team, Aids to navigation unit or other small boat unit and you would usually do a mixture of law enforcement and small boat engine maintinace. if you are Aids to Nav fixing light houses and buoys and small boat engines.. ect. At small boat units you will MOST of the time do your job as an mk (boat maintenance) and also the unit missions.
The other land units you could get would be Engineering support units for the cutters such as a MAT or NESU. these you would only work on cutters but be stationed ashore. You would have some opportunity to get underway TAD. Its kind of the best of both worlds if you want to be ashore but want to learn your rating and work on the cutters.

You could also get some random billets such as facilities maintenance where you fix stuff like generators and whatnot around whatever base u work on... i haven't ever been stationed somewhere with these billets so i dont really know what they do... but it seems to me that i would probably want to avoid them.


Other than that the rest of the billets you would get would be underway. Which as everyone has said - its pretty much where our rating is at so it would be the best choice to take a cutter if you can get one.

As far as morale that just depends on where your at i would say overall as a rating most of the MK's i meet i get along with, thats not to say they are all warm and cuddly but i would say most warrant respect and are ok people. And even if the unit has low moral usually the mk's stick together pretty good. At least from what i see. Again - its just depends on the people u get stationed with, ive been fairly lucky.
Its not like BM's where its an added bonus if your a jerk.

Hope this helps.

-b

I'm at a small boat station and I am the duty engineer and also the lead boarding officer in my section. The MKs are the BOs at my unit and I know on a 87 the MK2 is the lead BO. So you can get the chance to do law enforcement as a MK.

i'm at an ant right now, when our eng. dept has its full compliment (all 6 of us...)it's pretty much underway on a tanb or engineering a busl trip (normally 2 to 5 days). if neither, pms, pms, pms. since the epo is en route, the mk2 is on light duty, the em2 is en route, 1 fn is on light duty, and the other one is relatively new to fixing stuff, i'm the busl engineer/mk/em/fn. fun stuff, got a short stint as the "epo" while the mk2 was on leave. paperwork rocks....

i agree with the comments above, morale in the eng. dept is always pretty high everywhere i've been, we definately stick together. unlike the bm's who are in a constant finger-pointing contest.

ya'll have been very helpful... thanx alot

quote:

Originally posted by TarheelMK3:

i agree with the comments above, morale in the eng. dept is always pretty high everywhere i've been, we definately stick together. unlike the bm's who are in a constant finger-pointing contest.

I'm on a PC and the engineering departments morale comes from the bm's lol. Put two BM3's together and 3 non rates and watch them squal. Entertainment for hours hahaha!

Im also on a PC. We do alot of law enforcement. Ive also been on a 87'and a station and we did the same there. When were not doing LE we are on patrol or doing maint. But Id have to say that even Im gone from the family for awhile its been the best job Ive ever had. Its also helps when your a coxswain. If your thinking of going the coast guard theres only two rates. MK and BM. If you dont want to baby set. MK is the way to go. And we also proved any one can drive a boat.

I forgot. Im on my wifes account. I forgot my password. Just wanted to clear that up.

I forgot. Im on my wifes account. I forgot my password. I guess it happens when you have to remeber 10 different ones.

that sounds like a cool rating. as far as the politics of BMs and MKs getting along, it sounds like our crew chiefs and us jet engine mechanics... too funny. how hard is your A school? and, what do you think about DCs? Do they get to do LE too?

A school isn't hard, it's spoon fed to you. you learn the basics of various systems. the real learning happens when you get to the fleet as a MK. turd chasers are cool, at times i'm envious of their (shore) jobs. they get some cool schooling, etc. i'd imagine they could do LE, don't know for sure though.

I have never known of a dc doing le but I guess its possible.

I haven't ever seen a DC doing LE in 7 years in the CG. If you want LE experience, MK is the best way to go. For example, my '110 has 5 engineers, only 1 has to be on watch at a time. The bridge has to have an underway ood and qmow and if low visibility, posted lookouts. The XO and I are the primary B.O.'s and due to a personnel shortage, I am now doing 99% of the boardings. At the station, I was the B.O. for my duty section. And I know most of the 87's out here, the MK2 is the B.O. I like LE, just dont make it your primary duty, unless it is your billet.