Coast Guard Case Study
A case for the removal or reform of the IT rate in today’s coast guard In the Coast Guard the delineation between the Electronics Technician (ET) rate and the Information Technician (IT) rate is blurring. With the implementation of new technology being adopted by the Coast Guard at an unprecedented rate, and all of it computer based at some level. It is imperative for the future of the service, to adapt our rates and the training of them accordingly. ETs can be trained to do most IT related tasks at a basic Tier 1 level; However if you tell the average IT to go climb the mast to clean or troubleshoot a satellite antenna, it is highly likely they would pass it off to the ET shop for their expertise . Inversely, today we face many cyber threats
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In my over six years as an ET on board such a vessel my work load consisted primarily of workstation related tasks and maintenance. Whether it was the multiple patches weekly compounded by the quantity of workstations, not to mention the server, the man hours quickly added up. All of these hours were in addition to my actual tracked hours working on ET equipment such as the Radar and communication suits on board. This also becomes a manpower issue.
While on the topic of Radar, all the new navigation systems being installed on board ships are either mostly or in part ran by a computer. The next time a Radar system has a failure you are more likely to hear the ITs piped to the bridge in addition to the ETs. We can eliminate this by properly training the ET rate to meet the basic Tier 1 admin level of IT.
In my position at the SFLC-ESD-ELEX division I review and approve Maintenance Procedure Cards (MPCs) that are assignable to either ET or IT depending on the force complement on board the vessel. This is very reminiscent of the longstanding argument between Electricians Mates (Ems) and Machinery Technicians (MKs) of electrical verses mechanical. To reiterate my point of the mast, I have vetted multiple MPCs that call for that very thing. Talking to units out at the fleet they often just task the MPC to the ETs as it fits the rate knowledge and is inherent
In my over six years as an ET on board such a vessel my work load consisted primarily of workstation related tasks and maintenance. Whether it was the multiple patches weekly compounded by the quantity of workstations, not to mention the server, the man hours quickly added up. All of these hours were in addition to my actual tracked hours working on ET equipment such as the Radar and communication suits on board. This also becomes a manpower issue.
While on the topic of Radar, all the new navigation systems being installed on board ships are either mostly or in part ran by a computer. The next time a Radar system has a failure you are more likely to hear the ITs piped to the bridge in addition to the ETs. We can eliminate this by properly training the ET rate to meet the basic Tier 1 admin level of IT.
In my position at the SFLC-ESD-ELEX division I review and approve Maintenance Procedure Cards (MPCs) that are assignable to either ET or IT depending on the force complement on board the vessel. This is very reminiscent of the longstanding argument between Electricians Mates (Ems) and Machinery Technicians (MKs) of electrical verses mechanical. To reiterate my point of the mast, I have vetted multiple MPCs that call for that very thing. Talking to units out at the fleet they often just task the MPC to the ETs as it fits the rate knowledge and is inherent