Coast Guard codes that count toward an A&P

What the table shows

How to read this one

Six rows, and the most favorable table in the appendix. The AMT rating and its legacy AD, AE and AM predecessors all map to both ratings outright, with no inspector-evaluation qualifier.

AET — Avionics Electrical Technician — is the one row that carries the Note 1 qualifier. Expect the interview to do real work there.

The table

Table A-5 — U.S. Coast Guard

Both = “Airframe and Powerplant.” † = Note 1 in the AC: “ASI evaluation is required to determine if the applicant has experience relative to the rating(s) applied for.” Where the AC says “A or P” rather than “A and/or P,” read it as the narrower of the two.

Your old code still counts

Experience does not expire

The AC states it directly: “Aviation maintenance experience does not expire; therefore, the codes in the 'Previous Codes' column are still valid for persons wishing to credit their military aviation maintenance experience toward meeting the requirements of an FAA Mechanic Certificate.”

There is no cut-off date and no requirement that your service be recent. If you got out in 1994, your code is as valid today as it was then.

Where your evidence lives

Coast Guard records worth pulling

iPERMS for separations after 1 October 2006; the National Personnel Records Center before that.

Coast Guard training appears on the Joint Services Transcript.

Everyone needs a DD Form 214, Member-4 or Service-2 — not Member-1, which omits fields you need. milConnect is fastest if your separation date qualifies; eVetRecs and the SF-180 are the fallbacks.

The part the table does not tell you

A code is not creditable time

Finding yourself in the table above establishes which rating your experience points at. It does not establish how much creditable experience you have — and that is the number that decides whether you can apply at all.

Training time does not count: not boot camp, not your MOS or tech school, not the follow-on pipeline. For many maintainers that is six to twelve months off the top. Purely supervisory and inspection time is at risk too, which hits the most senior people hardest.

Work out where you actually stand — it takes about two minutes and it is the thing to do before you request a single record.

Other services

The rest of Appendix A