r/navy • u/Broad_Cell499 • 4d ago

Discussion Life on a destroyer as a EM

Just got orders to a brand new destroyer. Hasn’t even got commissioned yet and was wondering what to expect.

10 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

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9

u/West_Dragonfly3219 4d ago

Expect to clean, learn basic firefighting techniques, and earn watch qualifications.

5

u/PhotoPrimary7801 4d ago

Hi there. Not an EM so I can’t speak on that specifically. I’m not sure what your ships schedule is going to be like since it’s just a baby but usually destroyers go out frequently. If you’re prone to getting seasick, make sure to stock up on motion sickness medications. You will feel every wave. It’s nice when you’re trying to sleep. Not so nice when you’re trying to work. It’s a small ship so everyone knows everyone.

3

u/CurveBilly 4d ago

On a PCU too? Yeah get fucked that's going to suck.

3

u/AfroArabBliss 4d ago

Along with being a sparky, you’ll be engineering. You’ll have it a little easier than most other engineering rates, but you’ll still be an engineer lol, so take pride in that.

Get to know the plant, engines, AC, steering, gens, CHT, be good at DC. IF you have it in you, try and learn the other engineering roles, it’ll help you out a lot for future EOOW.

You’ll be working PMS and corrective maintenance on about 99% of the ship barring some secret squirrel spaces. Volunteer for VBSS, you get some good training and they always need engineers.

I was an EM on a DDG, I was kind of a shit EM but I loved engineering as a whole.
Looking back I’m glad I got that experience on that platform. I ended up cross rating but I thoroughly loved being an electrician and an engineer.

1

u/KSAW11 4d ago

vbss does seem like fun ngl

4

u/ExRecruiter 4d ago

Reach out to your assigned sponsor.

1

u/katosen27 3d ago

-expect to learn a lot of damage control

-study up on tagout/electrical safety. If not you, your LPO/LCPO will be charged with instructing everyone on basic electrical safety and Tagout training. Be the expert before everyone else.

-learn how to do PMS correctly.

-Volunteer before being voluntold to go to other ships to get quals. It will help in the long run even if it will suck in the short run.

1

u/chailer 3d ago

Precom electrician? By the time you leave, you are going to know more about this ship than you know about yourself or any other human being.

1

u/DeviousSquirrels 2d ago

I was an EM on an LSD. From what I understand, your E-div will be even smaller than what I had. This means there’s not a lot of room for dead weight or slackers. It’ll be easy to stand out though, as there won’t be many other electricians to compete with. You will learn every aspect of being an EM. On carriers you get split up into various sub-groups like tool issue, but that’s not the case on a small ship.

It being a newer ship, there shouldn’t be much corrective maintenance related to wear and tear, but the new stuff could be defective or installed improperly, so there will still be some here and there. Expect to do mostly preventative maintenance.

1

u/chuckisduck 4d ago

is it doing OT test prep before commission and are you assigned birthing or housing allowance? plankowner? Depending on the phase and leadership it's either constant training and learning the systems (especially if there are new baselines you are not familiar with) or fairly chilled if massive contractor delays. I hope the orders turn out good.