A Finnish pilot who was in F-18 training in USA told that most USN (I don't
recall whether it was an USN or USMC base) mechanics receive surprisingly
little overall training, by Finnish standards.

I think the more likely scenario is that your Finnish pilot friend had very
little exposure to the vast amounts of training that USN mechanics go through -
I seriously doubt if most pilots in any air force are completely up to date on
the training aspects of a junior enlisted person's life. Its like asking a rock
star how much training his limo driver has undergone. My first year in the
Navy, as an "undesignated striker" (lowest of the low), included about a dozen
schools in everything from corrosion control ( a comprehensive course on
dissimilar metals and how to prevent/treat corrosion in a wide variety of
situations) to plane captain school ( familiarize and service every hydraulic
system, run patch tests, etc., take oil samples, process paperwork, inspect
dozens of various subsystems, etc.). Did your pilot friend go through each of
those courses..? If not, then there is no way for him to be familiar with
them, and no reason for him to even be aware that every mech in the USN goes
through them. I was only a mech for two years - in that two years, I was at
sea for 11 months, and in school 11 months. When I returned from that first
cruise, I immediately was sent into a training pipeline (15 months of
schooling) that included six more schools (from 4 weeks long, to a 14 week
course) and I would say that out of twelve years active duty, about half was
spent at sea, and at least half of the remaining time was spent in various
schools.

"Surprisingly little overall training", by any standards, doesn't match what I
saw and experienced. Something tells me that your friend simply didn't hang
out at the Line Shack or Jet Shop with the Plane Captains and Mechs enough to
be aware of the level of training they recieved.

v/r
Gordon
====(A+C====
USN SAR

Donate your memories - write a note on the back and send your old photos to a
reputable museum, don't take them with you when you're gone.