Job: Quarrying Specialist (21G)

JOIN THE U.S. ARMY!
To be a U.S. Army Soldier is to be a part of the strongest fighting force in the world. You'll spend your days training, working and serving together to protect America's freedoms. But you'll also have time after work for family, friends and personal interests. From recruitment to retirement, the U.S. Army provides a unique and diverse lifestyle for Soldiers.


The Army is always completing hundreds of construction projects and Quarry Specialists are integral to that process. Airfields, roads, dams and buildings can't be created without moving tons of earth and building materials. Quarry Specialists use bulldozers, cranes, graders and blasting equipment to complete these kinds of projects. Quarry Specialist s are responsible for operating electric, pneumatic, and internal combustion powered machines used in drilling, crushing, drilling, grading, and cleaning gravel and rock, or detonates explosives to blast rock in quarries and at construction sites. Some of your duties as a Quarry Specialist may include:

* Operate air compressors and related pneumatic tools
* Operate hydraulic powered rock drills
* Operate rock crushers and screening equipment
* Operate crushing and screening support equipment (i.e. Generators, Conveyors, Light sets, Pumps)

Job training for a Quarry Specialists requires nine weeks of Basic Training, where you'll learn basic soldiering skills, and five weeks of Advanced Individual Training and on-the-job instruction, including practice operating rock crushing, drilling, blasting and support equipment. Part of this time is spent in the classroom and part in the field. Some of the skills you'll learn are:

* Operation of different types of construction equipment
* Maintenance and repair of equipment
* General construction principles and information

Helpful attributes include:

* An interest in operating Quarry construction equipment
* An interest in explosives and blasting techniques
* A preference for working outdoors

Advanced level Quarrying Specialists provides guidance, supervises and trains other Soldiers within the same discipline. As an advanced level Quarry Specialist, you may also be involved in:

* Plan and erect rock processing equipment
* Plan and supervise blasting operations and rock production operations

The skills you learn as a Quarry Specialist will help prepare you for a civilian career with building contractors, state highway agencies, rock quarries, well drillers or construction firms.

There is a number of formal three year operating engineer apprenticeship programs, which you may qualify for as well. These programs, which are administered by the International Union of Operating Engineers and the Associated General Contractors of America, Inc., consist of at least three years or 6,000 hours of on-the-job training and 144 hours per year of classroom instruction.

Learn more about the relationship between military training and civilian certification requirements.