Past Military Experience

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Q: Alright. So just to start off, can you talk a little bit about your time in the military?

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A: Yeah. So, first off, after high school, I did three semesters of college. I studied mechanical engineering, and I wasn't the best student. I was taking out student loans and everything, and I just kind of wasn’t feeling it. So I dropped out and joined the military, specifically the Navy.

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I still wanted to go back into mechanical engineering after I finished my time in the military, so I wanted something that was still pretty technical. That’s how I ended up as a diesel technician. From a mechanical engineering side, it's not necessarily the same as what you would study in school or the path of an actual engineer. But you’re still interacting with a lot of machinery and equipment.

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After boot camp, I had about three months of tech school training, and then I was sent out to the fleet. I was with a large amphibious ship stationed in Southern Japan. We had about 300 to 400 people, and when we deployed, we would take on 400 to 500 Marines with us. It was a pretty decent-sized ship.

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There’s a lot of diesel technician work on the ship. There are four main engines, each requiring about five or six people to operate. There are also four diesel generators, which require two to three people each, and on top of that, there were support technical roles. My specific role on the ship was working in the ship’s fuel and oil laboratory.

With these big engines—like, for instance, the engine in your car—you don’t really need to change the oil that often because a typical car runs one or two hours a day at most. But our big diesel engines at sea run sometimes 24 to 48 hours at a time before they come offline for maintenance. If we were out at sea for six months, they’d be running about 75% of the time.

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Also, it’s not a big deal to change the oil on a car because it’s only a few quarts, maybe a little more for a truck. But our diesel engines had about 1,800 gallons of oil.

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So changing the oil at that point is a logistical challenge because we’re in the middle of the ocean. We would have to get 1,800 gallons of oil transported on pallets from a helicopter. It makes a lot more sense to put oil purifiers in the system to get more out of the oil. We were constantly monitoring the condition of the oil and doing a lot of fuel purification for the engines.

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Because it was an amphibious ship, it wasn’t necessarily an aviation ship. We had a big helicopter deck, but we didn’t have any aviation personnel. So my lab was in charge of aviation refueling. That was really exciting—whenever we’d have a helicopter land for refueling, me and a couple of people would dress out, head out on the flight deck, and when the helicopter landed, we’d run up, hook in the hose, and do the refueling while the propeller was still spinning. It was really cool.

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Current Life at University of Michigan

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Q: So after you were in the military, can you talk about your switch to college at Umich?

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A: I only did four years in the military because college was always my goal. Had I not chosen to go back to school, I could have applied my military experience to some real-world jobs. For instance, my helicopter refueling experience could have helped me get a job at an airport refueling helicopters or planes. My experience with lubricating oil testing could have gotten me a job at a big shipping company working on similar systems. A lot of those jobs have decent starting salaries—aviation refueling, for example, starts at around $30 to $35 an hour, which is about $60,000 to $70,000 a year. Especially here in New York, where there are strong unions, that work is pretty stable.

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But I always wanted to go back into engineering. With the GI Bill, I picked the University of Michigan because it's a prestigious public school. Public schools are a little easier to attend on the GI Bill than private schools due to less paperwork. Plus, I didn’t have the best education background, and public schools tend to be more accessible. I started at U of M when I was 25, after being away from school for about five or six years.

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It was challenging with the pandemic, but I made it through. I just graduated last December and am currently applying to graduate school. Right now, mechanical engineering is having some job market challenges. I live in Brooklyn, and a lot of the job interviews I had were in Long Island or New Jersey. With the way the market is, I can get more money from the GI Bill to attend grad school than I could working an entry-level engineering job.

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Specific Advice

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Q: Do you have any specific advice for someone who wants to join the military or go into aerospace? I know you took a unique path—college, military, then back to college.

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A: For someone looking at joining the military, a big trap I saw a lot of people fall into was losing sight of their goals. The military is not just a job—it takes over your whole life. When I was on the ship in 2017, we were out at sea for 10 months. That was my whole life. We had basic internet, so I could email my family, but that was it.

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I only did four years, and my goal was to go back to college. Two years before getting out, I started emailing universities and talking to admissions about what I needed to do as a nontraditional student and a veteran. I was also really on top of my money. When you’re deployed at sea, there aren’t many ways to spend money, so saving was easier. That helped me transition, whereas some people lose track of things and can’t afford to go back to school.

For those who want to stay in the military, it's crucial to keep your priorities in mind. The military is more than a job—things that happen outside of work impact your career. Socializing in the cafeteria, for example, can lead to things that affect your path. The military can sometimes shroud your direction, so it’s important to stay focused.

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For anyone interested in engineering, especially mechanical or aerospace, it’s very math-centric. Prioritizing math education in high school is crucial. My high school didn’t have AP classes, so I was a little behind. That played a role in why I dropped out of college the first time—I wasn’t prepared for rigorous math courses. Although math isn't a huge part of the actual job, it's a big part of getting the degree. AP Math is a big help.

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Like the military, engineering requires keeping your goals in mind. Mechanical engineering includes various fields—material science, heat transfer, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics—that may not always seem relevant. But it's just four years of school, and once you're past that, you can pursue what interests you. Engineering is broad, with many different career paths, and a lot of them are really interesting.

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Amphibious Ship Specifics

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Q: What exactly is an amphibious ship?

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A: "Amphibious" means it's designed for close-to-shore operations. Aircraft carriers and destroyers are deep-water ships, but an amphib can go much closer to shore. We carried Marines when we deployed, and our ship could pull up close to shore, drop a big gate out of the back, and deploy marine amphibious vehicles. Some ships carry hovercrafts, but mostly, we had armored personnel vehicles that could float, bob in the water, and drive to shore.

One annoying thing about amphibious ships is that because they’re designed to get close to land, they have a flat bottom. That means when you're out at sea, the ship rocks a lot more, which is really annoying.

 

Military Takeaways

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Q: What was your biggest takeaway from the military?

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A: As for my biggest takeaway from the military, it gave me a strong sense of self. I've always been independent—some might call it rebellious, but some might call it being a free thinker. When I was in the military, I didn’t have a problem with authority, but I didn’t just blindly accept what I was told. The military taught me discipline, but it also reinforced my ability to think critically and stand by my own values. That helped me a lot when transitioning back to college and life afterward.

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