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Navy NEC · Logistics

W12A Assistant Navigator

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

An Assistant Navigator assists the Navigator with navigation, piloting, and navigation administration. The assistant also ensures the proper preparation of reports required by higher authority.

Minimum clearance: Secret

Core Skills

  • Preparation of required navigation reports

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.

Commercial Vessel Mate

Assisting the Navigator with navigation, piloting, and navigation administration provides directly relevant experience for a commercial vessel mate's navigation duties.

How to prepare: Request an official sea-service transcript or assignment history with vessel tonnage, routes, propulsion power, time underway, and assigned duties for Coast Guard endorsement evaluation; a DD-214 is not acceptable sea-service evidence. Entry requires an MMC with the appropriate officer endorsement, including qualifying experience, approved training, professional competence, and age, citizenship, health, and drug-testing qualifications; most jobs also require a TWIC, and open-ocean service requires USCG-verified STCW training.

What the civilian work involves
  • Direct courses and speeds of ships, based on specialized knowledge of local winds, weather, water depths, tides, currents, and hazards.
  • Consult maps, charts, weather reports, or navigation equipment to determine and direct ship movements.

Notes & Sources

  • Military sea-service credit is evaluated for merchant-vessel equivalence and endorsement scope; normally 60 percent of total time onboard counts as equivalent underway service, although vessel operating periods may be evaluated separately.
Evidence for this guidance (5 documents)
  1. NAVPERS 18068F Vol II (NEOCS, Jul 2026 edition): NEC W12A

    [1] NEC entry "W12A - Assistant Navigator"; cached text line 16046; NAVPERS 18068F Vol II, 2026-07 edition

    Supports: Preparation of required navigation reports, Commercial Vessel Mate (O*NET 53-5021.00)

  2. O*NET: Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels

    [2] O*NET 30.3 occupational data

    Supports: Commercial Vessel Mate (O*NET 53-5021.00)

  3. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Water Transportation Workers

    [3] How to Become; training, licenses and related experience; updated August 27, 2026, checked September 23, 2026

    Supports: Commercial Vessel Mate (O*NET 53-5021.00)

  4. USCG: 46 CFR 10.232 military sea-service evidence and credit

    [4] Paragraphs (a) and (d)(1), official eCFR snapshot September 21, 2026; retrieved September 24

    Supports: Commercial Vessel Mate (O*NET 53-5021.00)

  5. USCG: 46 CFR 11.201 officer-endorsement requirements

    [5] Paragraph (a), official eCFR snapshot September 21, 2026; retrieved September 24

    Supports: Commercial Vessel Mate (O*NET 53-5021.00)

Defense contractor jobs for W12A

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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