GS Gas Turbine System Technician Navy Rating Patch

Look below the turbine wheel and two small signal flags spell out the rating: Golf, striped yellow and blue, and Sierra, a blue square set in white. G and S, the same two letters stitched large on either side of the wheel. The Gas Turbine Systems Technician rating was established in 1978, as the surface Navy took its warships to gas turbine propulsion. GS sailors run, maintain and repair those engines and the systems wrapped around them, from the main propulsion plant to the electrical gear that controls it. Engineering is the specialty, and the engine room is home.

The rating splits into two paths. GSMs take the mechanical side: gears, shafts, controllable pitch propellers, pumps, turning gears, air compressors and the auxiliary equipment tied to the plant. GSEs take the electrical side, measuring current, voltage and resistance and chasing down shorts, grounds and continuity faults in turbine controls and electric plant equipment. Both start at "A" school at Great Lakes, Illinois, about 15 weeks for the mechanical course and about 22 for the electrical. After that it is watches, maintenance checks and qualifications in a space most of the crew never visits.

The patch is the classic Navy rating shape, a wide panel with curved top and bottom, 4.5 inches wide and 3.25 inches tall. A gold band across the top reads "UNITED STATES NAVY" in navy blue letters, and a matching gold band along the bottom reads "GAS TURBINE SYSTEM TECHNICIAN." The navy blue center carries a white G and S with a red turbine wheel and its housing between them, and the Golf and Sierra flags stitched small underneath. A white inner line frames the field, and a navy blue merrowed edge rolls around the outside. It has an iron-on backing and can also be sewn on for a permanent hold.

Gas turbines brought a different kind of engineering to the surface fleet, and the GS rating was created to own it. The work runs on readings, logs and procedure as much as on wrenches, because a propulsion plant is only as ready as its last check. Petty officers and chiefs in the rating stand engineering watches underway and keep the plant ready in port. A GS learns his ship from the bilges up. Shipmates in other ratings may never set foot in the space, but they feel the work every time the ship comes up to speed.

It sits well in a shadow box beside a ship's plaque and a set of qualification pins, or on a jacket or vest at a reunion. It also makes a good gift for a GSM or GSE reporting to a first ship, or for a chief retiring after twenty years below decks. For anyone who stood the watch down there, it is the rating spelled out in letters and in flags.