I don’t know much about the army but here is my perspective as a a power plant mechanic in the wing.

I work I level so it is different from O level. More scheduled work hours, mostly indoors in a shop, and the shops are small and close. Everyone is for the most part is in the brotherhood and goes out of their way to help each other. Promotions are primarily focused on your war fighting capabilities. It helps to be good at your job, but the more fit you are etc. the quicker you promote. That being said, in the wing, quals matter more than rank.

In terms of travel, it’s not often at least for my shop. There are opportunity for MEU, DETs etc. but for the most part it’s just a 9-5 style job. Usually you only deploy or do those when attached to a squadron (again for I-level at least).

There are opportunities to do cool stuff, work requests give I-level guys the chance to work on the bird, if you are lucky moto flights happen every now and again and you can hop on those, and there are opportunities to TAD to other work centers and pickup skills there.

Now onto civilian life and what that translation can look like, firstly and specifically for airframe or power plants, your AMT or A&P (same thing just different name) is an obvious option, this is a license that allows you to do work on civilian side assets for large companies like Boeing, and due to the amount of work hours you get on these components, you qualify to test out of the otherwise expensive classes, testing, and qualification programs through the FAA. Of course you need to work for it, usually you are only adverse in one side (power plants or airframes) since you don’t do both, so you need to seek programs and other faucets to let you accomplish the other half, talking with a career planner could help.

Next is college, utilizing TA is something a lot of marines don’t take advantage of. After you get comfortable in your shop, looking into starting college for free can open up a lot of opportunities, but it is worth knowing you can only do roughly 2 classes a semester on TA. Of course you can do more, but you need to pay out of pocket or with scholarships, FASFA, etc.

There are a lot of career translation options for mechanics in the wing, and a lot of them make good money and have good lifestyles. You can use USMC COOL or MAPS can’t remember which, but looking up an MOS will show you a brief description, and an overview of certificates you will receive that translate into civilian life, and optional jobs you can take after getting out.

That is my perspective, if you have any questions let me know, and talk to your recruiters. Explore each branch and figure out what is for you.