The Aviation Maintenance Technician (AMT) rating was established on January 1, 1999 as part of the Coast Guard’s streamlining of its Aviation training and rating system, but its winged-propeller insignia was first used by the United States Navy in 1921 for the Aviation Machinist’s Mate (AMM) rating and was introduced in the Coast Guard in 1934. In 1948, both the Coast Guard and the Navy changed the rating’s abbreviation from AMM to AD in a move to give all General Service ratings two-letter abbreviations; the D was selected only because “AM” had already been assigned to Aviation Metalsmith. (In an ironic twist, the AM rating name was changed to Aviation Structural Mechanic.)
Aviation Machinist’s Mates were the first Coast Guard Aviation personnel to be trained at the Aircraft Repair and Supply Center (ARSC) in Elizabeth City, North Carolina after the Navy’s Class “A” School for the rating was relocated there from San Diego in 1949. Nearly thirty years later (1978), all the Aviation schools that had been hosted at ARSC were shifted to the newly commissioned Aviation Technical Training Center (ATTC).
As the result of an 18-month service-wide study of the Coast Guard’s Aviation maintenance workforce, two ratings—Aviation Machinist’s Mate and Aviation Structural Mechanic—were merged to create the Aviation Maintenance Technician (AMT) rating in 1999. The duties of the new rating encompassed the inspection, troubleshooting, repair, and maintenance of all Aviation equipment and structural components found on Coast Guard aircraft.
Both the initial five-month training program and advanced courses related to specific types of aircraft (except the HC-130) are held at the ATTC in Elizabeth City. In addition to its own courses, the Coast Guard offers AMT personnel the opportunity to enroll in courses hosted by third-party commercial companies in order to earn an associate degree (or higher) in aeronautical technology.