[kforbs126]

Originally Posted by bellhead

I'll post my review of ET NEC's...

After A school your orders will determine your initial NEC's.... I picked a Comsec school as I didn't like working on radars, and the advice from our Sea Daddy was to get a crypto nec and we would avoid radars for the rest of our careers unless we requested it. This is due to you needed a TS/SCI clearance for the access for the spaces the crypto gear is stored in. Which is the tech control or ships messaging "radio room". Also almost all comm ET's will get a TS/SCI as they work will work in the tech control facility where all comms and message traffic are at. Also you will have SAP clearances you will need to have also depending on how much your comm site works with CT's.


ET's work primarily on Search Radars, weather radars, and approach radars for planes, or communication systems. You can go to about.com and find out more about specific NEC's, for these.

As for the comms, you have shored based comms primarily Satcom and HF coms, also you have vhf and ufh radios for the airplanes, telephone systems, wan and lan circuits, routers, switches, multiplexers, and optical tranmission equipment.

If you go comm you have a good chance of being stationed overseas as opposed to being on a ship. Comm ET's spend about 40% of there time on ships, with 40% US, and 20% overseas shore duty, there are trade offs here, my shore based nec locations where Adak Alaska, Guam, Diego Garcia, and Spain. You'll be praying for a ship after a month at Adak.

ET's don't get NEC locked anymore. Most ET's I know have a comms and radar NEC, it's actually better to be more well rounded for the advancement exam. You also don't need a Top Secret to be in the radio room. They just kick you out if they need to load crypto.