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Navy NEC · Engineering

B06A Water Well Drilling Technician

Current service use not established

This code is listed in the directory. Inclusion alone does not confirm current service use.

A Navy Enlisted Classification: a skill designation sailors hold in addition to their rating.

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Overview

A water well drilling technician identifies suitable areas for water supplies and sets up and operates rotary, pneumatic, or percussion drilling rigs. The technician installs casing and drill steel, collects subterranean samples, develops the water supply, and tests the water for purity and the well for yield and drawdown.

Core Skills

  • Water supply site selection
  • Drilling fluid use during well construction
  • Subsurface sample collection during drilling
  • Water purity, well yield and drawdown testing

Civilian Career Paths

Career associations are editorial assessments of the cited evidence, not an official crosswalk unless the evidence explicitly says so. O*NET supplies civilian occupation information, not proof of a military match. Related experience does not confer civilian qualifications. Tasks and tools below describe civilian work, not military training.

Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas

Your experience setting up water-well rigs, controlling drilling and installing casing directly overlaps with civilian earth-drilling work.

How to prepare: Check the intended jurisdiction's well-driller licensing or registration rules to determine whether to pursue supervised helper or trainee entry rather than independent drilling work. Independent performance of regulated well drilling depends on meeting that jurisdiction's requirements.

What the civilian work involves
  • Operate controls to stabilize machines and to position and align drills.
  • Start, stop, and control drilling speed of machines and insertion of casings into holes.
  • Regulate air pressure, rotary speed, and downward pressure, according to the type of rock or concrete being drilled.
Civilian tools and software (examples)
  • Global positioning system GPS software

Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas

Your drill-steel connection and casing-hoisting experience transfers to oilfield pipe handling, with rotary-control overlap depending on whether you operated rotary rigs.

How to prepare: Seek supervised practice on oilfield rotary-table pressure controls and drill-pipe handling, identifying whether your previous rig experience was rotary, rotary/pneumatic or percussion.

What the civilian work involves
  • Observe pressure gauge and move throttles and levers to control the speed of rotary tables, and to regulate pressure of tools at bottoms of boreholes.
  • Push levers and brake pedals to control gasoline, diesel, electric, or steam draw works that lower and raise drill pipes and casings in and out of wells.
  • Connect sections of drill pipe, using hand tools and powered wrenches and tongs.
Civilian tools and software (examples)
  • Drillingsoftware DrillPro

Notes & Sources

Evidence for this guidance (3 documents)
  1. NAVPERS 18068F Vol II (NEOCS, Jul 2026 edition): NEC B06A

    [1] NEC entry "B06A - Water Well Drilling Technician"; cached text line 1971; NAVPERS 18068F Vol II, 2026-07 edition

    Supports: Water supply site selection, Drilling fluid use during well construction, Subsurface sample collection during drilling, Water purity, well yield and drawdown testing, Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas (O*NET 47-5023.00), Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas (O*NET 47-5012.00)

  2. O*NET: Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas

    [2] O*NET 30.3 occupational data

    Supports: Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas (O*NET 47-5023.00)

  3. O*NET: Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas

    [3] O*NET 30.3 occupational data

    Supports: Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas (O*NET 47-5012.00)

Defense contractor jobs for B06A

Descriptions may be summarized for clarity. Verify all information with your branch career counselor or official military documentation before making career decisions.

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