His resume reads like a scene out of "Top Gun." As a welding engineer, Ernest Levert has worked on such projects as the Tomahawk and Ground Launched Cruise Missile Program, the Multiple Launch Rocket System Sense and Destroy Armor Warhead, and the International Space Station. And you thought Wall Street was high-paced. Today, serving as the manufacturing engineer project manager for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Levert makes every other job look like housecleaning.
"I've come a long way from the ghettos of Cleveland to where I am today," Levert says. Growing up in the inner city, Levert knew his parents couldn't afford to put him through college. Fortunately, Levert discovered his future before he finished middle school. "Have you seen that movie 'October Sky'?" Levert asks. "The young man is me. We lived parallel lives. I didn't want to work in the steel mills; I wanted to do something different." Levert wanted to be an astronaut.
In eighth grade metal shop, Levert's teacher showed the class an old 16-mm film about welding materials and bridges. Before long, Levert applied and was accepted to Max Hayes, a vocational high school where he learned the fundamentals of welding, the craft of joining two metals together. By grade 10, Levert had landed an internship with NASA at Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, OH. This first step towards space was just the beginning. After graduation, Levert worked as a tool-and-die maintenance welder for two years. Here he manufactured and repaired parts using gas tungsten and shielded metal arc welding processes. This practical experience soon led him to the Navy. Once there, Levert moved up quickly.
"I went straight from boot camp to high-pressure welding school and I thought, 'Wow! This is what I wanted!'" With a GI Bill in his pocket, Levert earned his education, and his welding certification. The Navy immediately shipped him off to a guided-missile cruiser. "I was the only high-pressure welder on board the ship-so basically, the ship couldn't go to sea without me," he says. "People just don't know what welding can do for you. I've traveled all over the world because of welding."
Levert's travels did not dock with the Navy ship. After being selected for the Broadening the Opportunity for Officers Selection and Training (BOOST) program and continuing his engineering studies at the Naval Training Center in San Diego, he applied to Ohio State University's unique welding-engineering program. After he'd been accepted into the program, Levert finished his duty in the Philippines and headed back to Ohio. During Levert's four years at Ohio State University, he filled his summers with internships. Each year, he tried out a different type of welding, such as a plant engineer, a research-and-development assistant and a manufacturing developer. It was when Levert discovered this last field, manufacturing engineering, that he chose his specific career path. "That's when I decided I liked building things!" he says. Levert learned the ins-and-outs of envisioning projects, procedures and techniques, all skills that he uses regularly today.
When Levert graduated from Ohio's program in 1982, he had experience, skills and expertise. And 18 job offers. This rocket-dreamer ended up working on jet, rocket and yes, space shuttle engine components. For four years, he developed his expertise in an advanced welding process called electron beam welding. When he joined the ranks of Lockheed and Martin Missiles and Fire Control in 1986, this specialized skill made him an invaluable employee. Now a project manager for Lockheed's manufacturing-engineering department, Levert keeps himself quite busy. Research and development fills most of his days, requiring Levert to follow a project from idea to product. During a product's evolution, Levert draws up reviews, analyzes missile budgets and attends meetings, in which he is the welding expert. He teaches other welders and welding engineers how to turn projections and techniques into reality.
One of Levert's earliest jobs turned into a rather lengthy project. For the Missile Launch Rocket System, Levert managed the launcher's eight and a half miles of welds. He has also worked on the tills that catch fighter jets landing on aircraft carriers. From day-to-day, Levert's main responsibility is problem solving. It's the part of his job that he enjoys the most. "You get called in, you have a problem you have to find answers to," he says. But his problems involve things that detonate, such as the missile programs the Army Tactical Missile System. In both projects, Levert developed the electron-beam welding procedures for the missiles. In the laser-like process, an electron-beam gun shoots out a concentrated stream of electrons that heats the target area. Most of the time, Levert creates and develops the procedures, while other welders complete the job. One time, this wasn't the case.
During one project, Levert performed the first 25 welds himself. The missiles were live. "We cleared the entire facility in the area until we welded the first one," he says. "I was 99.95% sure it would work." Because he designed this specific electron-beam welding procedure, Levert didn't trust anyone else to execute the operation. "You make one mistake and it could be very devastating," he says. But Levert didn't just jump up to the hot-wired missile and give welding a whirl. With this weld, there were certain limits he could not exceed. "It took me two and a half years to approve the concept, the technique, the procedures," he says. "If you go over those limits, it just will go boom!" Fortunately, Levert welded without event. "That night, I slept soundly for the first time in almost a year and a half," he remembers.
When he's not welding live missiles, Levert works on the International Space Station. Levert developed and authorized all the technical procedures for thermal control units that control the environment and biomedical experiments in space. With lives riding on his work, he does not settle for less than his best work. "When you have 15,000 class-A welds traveling 17,000 miles an hour, you do it right or you don't do it," he says. As vice president of the American Welding Society, Levert regularly emphasizes diligence at career-day events. "When you take an exam and you put the decimal in the wrong place, the teacher takes off minus five or minus 10," he says. "When you enter into the real world, a mistake can cost a life."
If you intend on pursuing a welding career, take all your math, physics and chemistry now. These courses sharpen problem-solving skills, the ones Levert uses daily. If possible, also take welding metallurgy, the study of materials and how to join them together. "Hard work does pay off," Levert says. And if the hard work involves welding, he believes it can pay off in more ways than one.
First, you can work anywhere, including the fields of aerospace and defense, automotive, ship and bridge building, skyscraper construction and sculpting. Positions range from welder or technician to engineer, inspector or artist. Also, your income is limited only by your credentials, qualifications and willingness to learn. Wages range from $15 to $100 an hour. "You can't stop learning. Once you do, you put a cap on your potential," Levert explains. "I've just not stopped my growth." To this professional project-manager, welders deserve the same respect as surgeons. They both master eye-hand coordination. And contrary to misconceptions, welders can even match the salary of a surgeon. As for the future of the business, Ernest uses only superlatives.
"The future is excellent. The future is here. There will be a shortage of workers in the future." With an increase in demand, qualified welders are guaranteed job security. While missiles, warheads, and rockets whiz through his mental to-do list, Levert remembers where he has come from, and how he got here. "You can do it," he says. "You can work hard. My philosophy is with God in your life and faith in yourself, you can still achieve your goals, no matter what you're told."
Ernest Levert ENCOURAGES student correspondence through email. His address is: [email protected]
CAREER GOALS No matter what your occupation, you'll need G.O.A.L.S. During his speeches at high school career days, Levert uses that acronym to prescribe success. G - Go for the gold. Don't settle for anything less. O - Opportunity. Make the most of every chance you have. Find scholarships and succeed. A - Attitude. Be focused; surround yourself with positive thinkers like yourself. And learn from your mistakes. L - Leader. Be a leader. S - Stay with it. Don't give up the ship. Stick to it. With your career, pick your passion. "Choose a career where you can have fun and have career growth," Levert advises. "My job is exciting. I love my job."
NOT FOR GIRLS? If you think welding is a guy thing, think again. Ron Thurston, successful welder, plumber and co-owner of Thurston-Nairy Co., begs to differ. "Women went into the shipyard to do the work when men went off to war. A lot of times they could be better than a man because their hands are [generally] steadier," he explains.
For more outlook information, see the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/ocohome.htm CLICKABLE RESOURCES For comprehensive information on welding, check out the education, career and industry links at: . American Welding Society: http://www.aws.org . Society of Manufacturing Engineers: http://www.sme.org . Hobart Institute of Welding Technology: http://www.welding.org . Jets, or Junior Engineering Technical Society, and Engineering Net: http://www.jets.org/engnet.htm . Navy Joining Center: http://www.ewi.org/njc . Lockheed Martin Corporation: http://www.lmco.com Find college and technical schools according to geographic location through: . http://www.yahoo.com Four-year welding engineer programs: . Ohio State University: http://www.osu.edu or http://www-iwse.eng.ohio-state.edu . Ferris State University: http://www.ferris.edu Accredited Manufacturing Programs . Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology: http://www.abet.org General information and subject searches for "welding:" . The American Welding Society: http://www.aws.org . Encyclopedia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com . Discover Engineering: http://www.discoverengineering.org/eweek/links_eng_info.htm
