Expert: Mike Smith - 10/28/2009

Question
I am an active duty U.S. Marine who is looking at the idea of getting out of active duty. I am CBRN specialist who is also certified as a HazMat Tech, and trainer up to the Operations level. These are from an advanced course that my unit sent me to due to the requirements of the current deployment we are on. Also at this course I was trained on a lot of civil gear including how to service Dragger SCBA's. My question is what is out there for me in the means of doing HazMat work for a fire dept, or such. I am 26 years old now and have a ton of training besides the HazMat certificates in the CBRN or WMD field. Who should I be trying to get a hold of to really put myself out there on the civilian side? Also what can I expect from such a job? Thank you for any help.

Answer
Hi Andrew,
Please look at your haz-mat work within DOD first. I have not found anyone who makes the money a haz mat tech makes. I am thinking about Hill Air Force Base where I trained some of the techs back in the day. 6 figures.... I think you will find that after you leave the military with your military training, your pay rate will drop dramatically.
Please look into that first.
Mike