WEBVTT
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- I'm Lieutenant Navy Alicia Schick
from Pickering, Ontario,
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a Marine Systems Engineering Officer
currently serving onboard HMCS Montreal.
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A Marine Systems Engineering Officer
is responsible to the Commanding Officer
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for the technical state of the ship.
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We're responsible for pretty much anything
that makes a ship float and move.
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To do that, we of course have a whole team
that actually gets in there and makes this happen.
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In the engineering department,
we have a team of Marine Technicians
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with both mechanical and electrical backgrounds,
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that actually, from the bottom up,
act as on-watch personnel 24/7,
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manning and doing rounds on the equipment
to ensure it's operating as it should,
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as well as maintainers and technicians
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that either maintain the equipment
to prevent any failures,
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or should we encounter any problems,
go in there and try to rectify them.
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My job is more to act as a translator then
for the technicians
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who are the experts on the equipment,
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and essentially translating
what they're seeing and doing
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to the command team in a manner that makes it
more approachable and understandable
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what the impact is to them in the operations.
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- Warships are fighting ships
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and Marine System Engineering Officers
play a role in that, too.
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As damage control officers,
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they coordinate the repair of damage from fires,
floods or explosions
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while maintaining essential equipment
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so that the ship can continue to manoeuvre
and fight as necessary.
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- Missile away!
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- We're also responsible for anything
that makes it more like a floating city
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or your home away from home:
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power generation, sewage treatment,
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freshwater production and distribution.
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If you don't have functional sewage treatment
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or fresh water provided to the crew
for basic food services and showers,
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it becomes unsustainable in very short order.
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- It's a huge area of responsibility.
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Marine Systems Engineering Officers
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lead a team of over 55
crewmembers on the ship.
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With more than 250 people on board,
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that's a large component of the ship's
daily activities under their watch.
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- I like what I do every day here,
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and I find it's that much easier
to put time into it,
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get to know the systems and interact
with the people working on those systems.
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And I find that's part of what makes
someone a good engineering officer.
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This job can take you
throughout the country
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to places that you might not
otherwise have seen.
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I got the chance to explore
some of the communities up north,
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which would be pretty hard to get to otherwise,
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or across the world where I had the opportunity
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to deploy to the Mediterranean in the Black Sea.
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Seeing places like Crete
and meeting the people there,
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interacting with the other navies
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and just seeing a different country
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and how things are both the same
and different from home.
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- On completion of their military
and occupation training,
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Marine Systems Engineering Officers
will be ready for their first posting
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to a Canadian warship or submarine.
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They'll be assigned as a member
of a ship's company sailing out of
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either Halifax, Nova Scotia
or Esquimalt, British Columbia.
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They'll spend a year as a junior officer
in the Engineering Department.
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During that year, they'll acquire
extensive system knowledge,
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learning a bit about the administrative
side of the job,
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and taking on some very
basic divisional responsibilities.
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That first year is typically followed
by a shore posting on the east or west coast.
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This could be working at a coastal Fleet
Maintenance Facility,
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teaching new engineers
at the Naval Fleet Schools,
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or providing their expert
engineering assessments
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towards new ships and equipment
purchases for the future fleet.
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This shore posting is followed by another
one-year posting on board a ship,
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this time as the Assistant Head
of the Engineering Department.
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It's an opportunity to focus more
on the leadership and management parts of the job
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and to learn how to run
your own engineering department.
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After that, the career progression
can include both land and sea postings.
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There can also be opportunities
for engineering specialization
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through fully funded post-graduate education
in Canada or abroad.
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- Part of what I'm looking at doing
in the future
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is potentially doing
an engineering management degree.
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With that, there's lots of opportunities
within the military
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to go for further post-secondary education.
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And that's the one I'm looking at.
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Part of the things I like about being
in the Navy as Marine Systems Engineering Officer
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is the variety of positions available
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and that you never feel stagnant
with any of them.
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So, there's still lots of things
I get to go try after this
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that I haven't been exposed to yet.