The Navy Electrician rating was established in 1883, then promptly disestablished in 1884, only to be re-established as a Navy rating in 1898. The Electrician rating changed to its current name, Electrician's Mate, in 1921.[1]
Duties
Electrician's Mates stand watch on generators, switchboards, control equipment and electrical equipment; operate and perform organizational and intermediate maintenance on power and lighting circuits, electrical fixtures, motors, generators, voltage and frequency regulators, controllers, distribution switchboards and other electrical equipment; test for short circuits, ground or other casualties; and rebuild electrical equipment, including solid state circuitry elements, in an electrical shop.[2]
Requirements
Electrician's Mate class "A" school is approximately 18 weeks long, and the school is located in Great Lakes, Illinois. The EM rating requires a 5-year minimum enlistment contract.[1]
Select recruits, upon arriving to Recruit Training Command, are able to choose from one of three nuclear power rates, one of which is Electrican's Mate, Nuclear Power (EMN). After boot camp, they attend the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command and are then are employed onboard nuclear-powered ships and submarines to maintain the control of electrical systems and subsystems for nuclear reactors.
Electrician's Mate, Nuclear Power, 3rd Class Eric Anderson rewiring the coils of a motor
The Nuclear Electrician's Mate (EMN) "A" school is located in Goose Creek, South Carolina. This training is 6 months long, and is followed by an additional 6-month "Power" school, then 6 months of "Prototype" operational reactor time continued in Goose Creek or in Ballston Spa, New York. The EMN rating requires a minimum 6-year enlistment contract.[3]
