Antitank Missile Gunner
The civilian and federal jobs that hire Marines Antitank Missile Gunners — with real salaries and the resume that gets callbacks.
Every 0352 has more options than a Google search will tell you. Below: career paths, BLS salary data, federal GS series, certifications by target career, and how to translate your experience without losing what made you valuable to the Marines in the first place.
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After the Navy I got hired into 6 federal career fields and tech sales, and sat on federal hiring panels along the way. I spent the last 2 years rebuilding everything I learned into BMR, tuned for how AI actually screens resumes today. This is the system I wish I'd had on day one.
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Military Role Overview
The 0352 Antitank Missile Gunner is the Marine Corps' medium and heavy anti-armor specialist. If you held this PMOS, you employed the M220E4 TOW2 weapon system and the M98A1 Javelin, and you ran the M41A7 Improved Target Acquisition System (ITAS) Saber to find, track, and kill armor at range. You worked inside the anti-armor platoon of a weapons company in an infantry battalion, the antitank platoon of an LAR battalion, or a scout and antitank section in a tank battalion. The job is built on guided-missile gunnery, target acquisition through thermal optics, range estimation, and tactical employment of an anti-armor section in support of the MAGTF.
The training pipeline starts at the School of Infantry, where the Anti-Tank Missileman / Assault course is taught at Camp Geiger (a satellite of Camp Lejeune) or Camp Pendleton. You learned missile employment, ITAS optics operation, vehicle-mounted and dismounted anti-armor tactics, and tactical vehicle operation. As a noncommissioned officer you moved into gunner and squad leader billets, where you carried responsibility for crews, weapon systems worth six figures, and live engagements where a wrong call has real consequences.
Here is the honest part. Civilian employers do not have a job titled "antitank missile gunner," and a recruiter scanning your resume will not instantly see what you can do. What they can see, once it is translated, is a person who operated and maintained complex electro-optical weapon systems, made fast decisions under pressure with accountability for expensive equipment and human safety, trained and led a crew, and executed precise technical procedures without error. That signature opens doors in law enforcement, equipment field service, security operations, emergency management, and the skilled trades. This guide shows where 0352 experience actually goes, what those roles pay using BLS data, and how to write the translation so a civilian hiring manager understands it. If you want to map your specialty against other paths, start with the military career crosswalk. For the broader infantry context, the 0311 Rifleman and 0331 Machine Gunner pages cover adjacent ground. If you want plain-language proof your experience converts, read Hidden Military Skills Civilians Don't Know You Have.
When I separated from the Navy I spent 18 months applying with no callbacks. The work was never the problem. The way I described it was. Combat arms carries that problem doubled, because "antitank missile gunner" reads to a civilian recruiter as "no transferable skills." It is the opposite. You ran a six-figure electro-optical weapon system, made life-or-death calls in seconds, and led a crew that could not afford a mistake. The translation is what costs you the callback, not the experience itself. Fix the words and the doors open. — Brad Tachi, Navy Diver veteran & BMR founder
Pay Reality Check
The number that matters when you're deciding what's next: how does civilian pay compare to what you make now?
Military comp is approximate (varies by location/dependents). Civilian is BLS median. Federal includes locality pay. Your real number depends on duty station, family status, GS step, and overtime.
Private Sector Career Paths
There is no single civilian occupation that maps 1:1 to an 0352, so the strongest private-sector paths are the ones that reward a specific slice of what you did. Salary figures below are BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2024 medians. Treat them as national midpoints. Metro pay and overtime move them.
Law enforcement. Municipal and county policing values the exact discipline an 0352 built: split-second judgment, weapons accountability, working calm in chaos. BLS lists the median wage for police and sheriff's patrol officers at $77,270 (May 2024). Hiring runs in academy cohorts, so the calendar matters more than in most fields, and departments weight a clean record and physical standards heavily, both of which favor a combat-arms background. Marines from the 5811 Military Police field cross into this lane too, and the veterans in law enforcement guide walks the academy-to-badge path.
Security operations and protective services. Corporate security, executive protection, and facility security operations centers hire people who understand threat, access control, and standing post under pressure. Entry security guard work pays a BLS median of $38,370 (May 2024), which is the floor, not the ceiling. Supervisory and operations-center roles pay meaningfully more, and a clearance plus weapons credibility moves you past the entry tier faster. This market is geographically broad, with the strongest demand around corporate headquarters, data centers, and critical infrastructure.
Equipment and weapons-systems field service. Defense and industrial manufacturers need technicians who can operate, test, and troubleshoot complex electro-optical and electronic systems in the field, which is exactly what running ITAS thermal optics and a guided-missile fire-control system trained you to do. BLS puts industrial machinery mechanics at a $63,510 median (May 2024). Field-service roles supporting fielded military hardware often pay above that and prize hands-on experience with the actual systems. This path overlaps with what 2147 LAV Repairers pursue.
Skilled trades and heavy equipment. The trades reward people who execute precise technical procedures and show up reliable, and they are hungry for workers. Electrical power-line installers carry a BLS median of $92,560 (May 2024) and solar photovoltaic installers $51,860, with apprenticeships that the GI Bill can support. Commercial driving is another fast on-ramp, with heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers at a $57,440 median (May 2024).
Be honest with yourself about geography and cycle. Law enforcement and security hire nationally and steadily. Field service concentrates near defense manufacturing and bases. Trades follow construction and energy spending, which is regional and cyclical. For a wider branch-by-branch view of where military experience lands, the 30+ career paths by branch guide is a good map. When you are ready to put this on paper, the military resume builder handles the structure so you can focus on the substance.
Civilian Job Title Translations
| Civilian Job Title | Industry | BLS Median Salary | Outlook | Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officer O*NET: 33-3051.00 | Law Enforcement | $77,270 | 4% (As fast as average) | strong |
Security Operations / Protective Services Specialist O*NET: 33-9032.00 | Security | $38,370 | 3% (As fast as average) | strong |
Equipment / Weapons-Systems Field Service Technician O*NET: 49-9041.00 | Defense Manufacturing | $63,510 | 0% (Little or no change) | strong |
Emergency Management Specialist O*NET: 11-9161.00 | Public Safety | $86,130 | 5% (Faster than average) | moderate |
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Driver O*NET: 53-3032.00 | Transportation | $57,440 | 5% (Faster than average) | moderate |
Electrical Power-Line Installer and Repairer O*NET: 49-9051.00 | Skilled Trades | $92,560 | 8% (Faster than average) | moderate |
Solar Photovoltaic Installer O*NET: 47-2231.00 | Skilled Trades | $51,860 | 22% (Much faster than average) | emerging |
Companies That Hire This Background
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Federal Career Paths
Federal hiring runs on occupational series, not job titles, and several General Schedule series line up with an 0352 background once you frame the experience in their language. Veterans' Preference (5 or 10 points) applies across all of them, and on USAJobs you will often see roles open under merit promotion and through Veterans' Recruitment Appointment authority, which lets agencies hire eligible veterans without competing through the standard public process.
GS-0083 Police. Federal police protect installations, federal buildings, VA medical centers, and Department of Defense facilities. The series rewards weapons proficiency, use-of-force judgment, and post discipline, all of which an 0352 carries. Entry typically sits at GS-5 through GS-7, with supervisory billets reaching GS-9 and above.
GS-0080 Security Administration and GS-0085 Security Guard. These cover physical security, antiterrorism and force protection program work, and guard operations across federal sites. An anti-armor section leader's grasp of threat, defensive employment, and access control reads directly into the physical-security mission. Program-oriented GS-0080 roles climb higher than guard-classified GS-0085 positions.
GS-1801 General Inspection, Investigation, Enforcement and Compliance. This broad series covers federal roles that enforce laws and standards, from CBP and TSA functions to compliance inspection. The judgment and procedural discipline you applied to engagement criteria and rules of engagement maps onto enforcement work that demands the same defensible decision-making.
GS-0018 Safety and Occupational Health Management and GS-0089 Emergency Management. Running live missile gunnery means you lived inside range safety, risk assessment, and hazard control every day. The GS-0018 series formalizes that into safety program management, while GS-0089 Emergency Management fits anyone who coordinated operations, contingency planning, and crisis response. These reach GS-9 through GS-12 with the right resume.
Federal resumes are their own format and run long on purpose, with specifics on hours, supervisors, and detailed duty narratives that a private-sector resume would cut. The federal vs civilian resume guide spells out the difference, and if your only experience is military, building a federal resume from military experience alone is a solved problem. The federal resume builder is built for the USAJobs format. Marines from the 0341 Mortarman field target several of these same series.
GS Series & Position Matches
| GS Series | Federal Job Title | Typical Grades | Match | Explore |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GS-0083 | Police | GS-5, GS-7, GS-9 | View Details → | |
| GS-0080 | Security Administration | GS-7, GS-9, GS-11 | View Details → | |
| GS-1801 | General Inspection, Investigation, Enforcement | GS-5, GS-7, GS-9 | View Details → | |
| GS-0301 | Miscellaneous Administration and Program | GS-5, GS-7, GS-9 | View Details → | |
| GS-0085 | Security Guard | GS-4, GS-5, GS-6 | View Details → | |
| GS-0018 | Safety and Occupational Health Management | GS-7, GS-9, GS-11 | View Details → | |
| GS-0089 | Emergency Management | GS-7, GS-9, GS-11 | View Details → |
Federal resumes follow different rules. We know them.
Federal hiring uses keyword-matching and structured experience. BMR builds federal-format resumes (USAJobs-ready) with the right keywords, hours/week, and supervisor info — for any GS series above.
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Want to Change Careers Entirely?
Not everyone wants to stay in a related field. These career paths leverage your transferable skills — leadership, risk management, logistics, project planning — in completely different industries.
Aircraft Mechanic and Service Technician
The same precision, mechanical discipline, and zero-tolerance-for-error mindset that kept a TOW2 launcher and ITAS optics mission-ready transfers to aviation maintenance, where the consequences of a missed step are equally unforgiving.
Surveying and Mapping Technician
Range estimation, optics, and the habit of producing accurate measurements in the field are the core of land surveying. The thermal-optics and ranging work an 0352 did maps onto survey instrument operation more cleanly than most people expect.
Outside Sales Representative (Technical Products)
Selling technical and defense-adjacent products rewards someone who genuinely understands the hardware and can hold a room. An 0352 who operated guided-missile fire-control systems carries technical authority most sales reps never reach.
Athletic Trainer and Strength Coach
The physical resilience, the ability to coach people to a standard, and the discipline of sustained conditioning that an anti-armor Marine lived translate into strength and conditioning and athletic training.
Construction Manager
Running an anti-armor section means coordinating people, equipment, and timelines under pressure with real safety stakes. Construction management runs on the same coordination and accountability.
Real Estate Sales Agent
Real estate rewards the self-discipline, resilience through rejection, and ability to build fast trust that combat arms builds. It is commission-driven, which suits someone comfortable owning their own outcomes.
Pivoting industries? You don't need to start from scratch.
The skills that made you a good Marine, Sailor, Airman, or Soldier transfer further than you think. BMR rewrites your bullets for any of the pivot careers above — without making you sound like you've never done the work.
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Skills Translation Guide
If you are staying close to your field, applying to a defense field-service shop or a department that hires veterans, the people reading your resume already know what a TOW gunner does. This section is for the other case: when you are targeting a civilian role OUTSIDE the combat-arms and weapons world, where the hiring manager has never heard your terminology and will not look it up. The fix is to translate the skill, keep the scale, and drop the jargon.
Fire-team and section leadership becomes operations supervision. Leading an anti-armor section is personnel management, training, and accountability under deadline. Say it that way.
- Before: Served as anti-armor section leader for a TOW/Javelin squad in a weapons company.
- After: Supervised and trained an 8-person technical operations team, managing equipment accountability, readiness standards, and on-time mission completion in high-pressure conditions.
Fire control and target acquisition becomes precision technical operation. Running ITAS optics and a guided-missile fire-control solution is operating a complex electro-optical system to a measured standard.
- Before: Operated the ITAS to acquire, track, and engage armored targets with the TOW2 missile system.
- After: Operated and troubleshot advanced thermal-optical targeting and fire-control systems, executing precise procedures with zero tolerance for error and maintaining 100% equipment functionality.
Range estimation and ballistics becomes technical measurement and analysis. The math you did to range a target and account for conditions is data-driven decision-making.
- Before: Estimated range and applied ballistic corrections for engagements out to maximum effective range.
- After: Applied technical measurement and environmental-variable analysis to produce accurate engagement solutions, consistently meeting precision standards under time constraints.
Notice the pattern. Keep the numbers, keep the responsibility, change only the words that lock a civilian out. For a full reference, the 50 military terms translated to civilian language glossary is the cheat sheet, and how to explain military experience in a civilian interview carries the same skill into the conversation. The military resume builder does the translation work line by line.
Resume Bullet Examples
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Certifications by Career Path
Which certifications you need depends on where you're headed. Find your target career path below.
Construction & Trades
Emergency Management
General Career Transition
Law Enforcement
Project Management
Renewable Energy
Safety & EHS
Security Management
Transportation & Heavy Equipment
Got a cert? Don't bury it. List it the right way.
The wrong placement can sink an otherwise strong application. BMR knows where each cert ranks, what to call it, and how to frame it for ATS keyword matching and hiring manager attention.
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Transition Resources
Staying in or near the weapons, security, and protective-service world
If you want to keep operating near your strengths, point your energy at law enforcement academies, federal protective roles, and defense field service. American Corporate Partners (ACP) runs a free year-long mentorship that pairs veterans with corporate professionals, which is useful when you are decoding an industry you have never worked in. Industry associations like ASIS International (security management) and the International Association of Chiefs of Police publish entry pathways and credentialing maps worth reading before you apply. SkillBridge can place you with a defense contractor or law-enforcement agency in your last months of service, so you walk out with a civilian role already in motion. The SkillBridge guide covers timing and how to pitch your command.
Careers outside combat arms
If you are done with the weapons world entirely, leverage three things: your clearance, your record, and the GI Bill. A security clearance is a hiring advantage cleared employers pay for, so keep it active and say so on your resume. Use the GI Bill deliberately. Apprenticeship and certificate programs in the trades and in emergency management often pay faster returns than a four-year degree if your goal is a paycheck, not a credential. Read 30+ career paths by branch for the wider field, and the first 90 days in a civilian job guide for the part nobody prepares you for.
Tools and next steps
Start with the military career crosswalk to compare paths side by side. Use the military resume builder for private-sector roles and the federal resume builder for USAJobs. The transition office at SFL-TAP is a required resource you have already paid for. When you are ready, build your resume now.
See also: Army 11B Infantryman, Army 11C Indirect Fire Infantryman, and 0321 Reconnaissance Marine career paths.
Your 30 / 60 / 90-Day Transition Plan
Most people do this backwards. They wait until terminal leave to start, then panic. Here's the sequence that works. Already out? Same plan, start at day one today.
Set the foundation
- Pull your DD-214 (request from Milconnect if separated)
- List your top 3 civilian roles AND top 3 GS series
- Build your tailored 0352 resume — BMR does it free
- Write 1 strong LinkedIn headline (not "veteran seeking opportunities")
- Pull together your evals/performance reports for accomplishments
Apply with intent
- Apply to 5–10 jobs/week — quality over quantity
- Tailor every resume to the job description (BMR auto-tailors)
- Connect with 5 people/week on LinkedIn (not a spray)
- Set up a USAJobs profile and a saved-search alert for your GS series
- Practice translating your military bullets out loud — explain to a civilian friend
Close the offer
- Track every application — date, status, contact, notes
- Follow up 7–10 days after each application
- Prep for behavioral interviews using the STAR method
- Negotiate salary — don't take the first offer (BLS median is your floor)
- Stay applying even after one offer — leverage = options
Print this. Tape it to your monitor. Veterans who treat the job search like a 90-day op get hired faster than the ones who treat it like an emergency.
Frequently Asked Questions
What civilian jobs hire former 0352 Antitank Missile Gunners?
How do I put 0352 experience on a resume a civilian will understand?
What do these civilian careers actually pay?
Is my security clearance worth anything as a civilian?
How does Veterans' Preference help with federal jobs?
What if I want to leave the weapons and combat-arms world entirely?
Can I use the GI Bill for trade certifications instead of a degree?
How do I interview for a civilian job when my whole background is military?
Which geographic markets have the most demand for my background?
What other military jobs have similar civilian career paths?
Translate your 0352 Antitank Missile Gunner experience into a resume that gets callbacks
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