About This Career

Survival equipment specialists in the Military inspect, fit, maintain, and repair survival equipment, such as parachutes, aircraft life support equipment, search and rescue equipment, and air-sea rescue equipment, along with survival kits, medical kits, flight clothing, protective wear, night vision equipment, aircrew oxygen systems, liquid oxygen converters, anti-exposure suits, and G-suits.

This career is part of the Government and Public Administration cluster National Security pathway.

A person in this career:

• Evaluates survival equipment problems and determines feasibility of repair or replacement
• Uses test equipment such as altimeters, oxygen testers, leakage testers, and radio testers to conduct reliability testing on survival equipment
• Inspects, maintains, and repairs survival equipment such as parachutes, life rafts, oxygen masks, and protective clothing
• Inventories, cleans, receives, stores, and issues all equipment used in airdrop operations
• Installs and tests extraction and release systems
• Performs technical and routine inspection on cargo, extraction, and parachutes as well as other airdrop equipment before, during, and after each use
• Uses and maintains machines and tools for fabrication, modification, and repair of parachutes and other airdrop equipment
• Evaluates operational aspects such as equipment accountability, personnel reliability, mobility
• Conducts training, including survival equipment training, life support equipment training, and search and rescue equipment training
• Inspects, maintains, and repairs cargo aerial delivery systems, helicopter emergency flotation systems, air-sea rescue kits, and special-purpose protective clothing

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

People who do this job report that:

• You would often handle loads up to 10 lbs., sometimes up to 20 lbs. You might do a lot of walking or standing, or you might sit but use your arms and legs to control machines, equipment or tools.
• Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation requires being inside most of the time

Working in this career involves (physical activities):

• Identifying color and seeing differences in color, including shades and brightness
• Moving the arms, legs and torso together when the whole body is in motion
• Seeing clearly up close
• Identifying and understanding the speech of another person

Work Hours and Travel

• Irregular hours