Ami Burns – Being promoted to Lieutenant Commander

So I was selected for promotion in November, to Lieutenant Commander which is good so you know, you go in with a new Rank, to a new boat and it all sort of aligns really, really well and then it’s, it’s going to be a challenging, I’m going to anticipate a four year assignment to the platform, you know, with some ups and downs and delivery, delivery of a bomber, maintenance period and Patrols but I love that challenge.

Like I never, ever thought I would be an Officer when I first joined the Navy, never mind becoming an AMEO. You know, there was a point when AMEO was the top of my list of things I thought I would ever achieve in the Navy and now I’m, you know, I’m already thinking past that so yeah I feel like a proper grown up (laughs).

Simon: Where does it go then after?

So, when you’ve done your AMEO’s job and providing you’ve been successful, if you’re not successful you get off a lot quicker (laughs), you might get sacked, but you know, if you’ve done your AMEO’s job and you’ve been successful, you’re really then lining yourself up for a promotion to Commander and then all of the jobs that you do are inboard jobs, they’re shoreside jobs in support of submarine operations, in most cases.

For us, Marine Engineers, we’re kept in-house, we’ve got such a raft of knowledge from the training that we do and the experience from what we deliver, we don’t tend to sort of move out of the marine engineering stove pipe but there are opportunities to go and do, you know, jobs in Naples as a Commander, you know, working for NATO and really, the sort of world’s your oyster in some sense, if you’re good enough, and you know, you won’t know that until you’ve left, and suitable.