Coast Guard - Good, Bad & Ugly?

[Landrover]

Have a young man considering enlisting after his high school graduation this coming Friday out on the west coast. Finishing up with about a 2.8 GPA, but strong in mathematics. What are some of the stronger training choices while serving? Career opportunities post service? Skills that are transferable? Largest bases/stations? Lifestyle while serving? Any insight would be greatly appreciated [emoji120].

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[bowhuntntxn]

Paging atthewall!! I think he would be your best source of information. If I remember correctly, he was in the CG and has posted a ton of pictures and stories about it.

Personally I think choosing any branch of the services to serve in is a noble and wise choice that too few people are still making. Good luck to the young man and his upcoming decision.

[friscopaint]

Coast Guard is awesome, definitely wouldn't recommend my USMC path....

[warrington]

..

Coast Guard is awesome, definitely wouldn't recommend my USMC path....

We appreciate your service. Dont here this very often from USMC service men.

[Geezy Rider]

Every “Puddle Pirate” I’ve ever met was proud of their service and enjoyed their time served.

[RifleBowPistol]

I have known two people who joined the coast guard, one is my father in law, he was a captain of a ship that serviced buoys and other navigational related pieces out in the water. He was stationed in San Francisco if I remember correctly. He claimed they would sail to islands in the south Pacific to work on whatever needed repair. From what I understand most of those pieces have regular service intervals, so the services are planned every so often.
He likes to claim he was in the Navy, until you get to asking him what he did in the Navy. After the Coast Guard, he went on to be a crew boat captain, and tug boat captain, an A Hole, and a alcoholic. Not sure if he picked up the last two characteristics in the Coast Guard, or if those were things he picked up else where.

Then I also went to school with a guy who joined the Coast Guard, he got stationed on a boat, that also serviced buoys. I think he was on a smaller boat, that mainly worked near shore, he was based out of some port in the north east, some where around New York. His big experience that I know of for his career, was catching a state record sail fish while out on the Coast Guard boat. I think he is a master goof off now, but really don't know much about him since he got out of the Coast Guard.

Then there was one other guy I used to know years ago, he got into working on Coast Guard helicopters. The Coast Guard, has a lot of helicopters and fixed wing air craft. So if you have any interest in a field in air craft, they might be the place to go.

[TexasBob]

I know nothing of the CG, but I would advise a focus on being some sort of mechanic. My younger brother is very successful as a diesel mechanic. Seems that or aviation mechanic would easily transfer to civilian life and those roles cant be offshored to a call center overseas.

[Ætheling]

Coast Guard is awesome, definitely wouldn't recommend my USMC path....

I will second this about the USMC..... Army vet here Kidding!!!!

For the record I wouldn't recommend todays Army either if you have something better to do. Maybe linguist school.

[Landrover]

Thx guys!!![emoji106]

Paging atthewall!! I think he would be your best source of information. If I remember correctly, he was in the CG and has posted a ton of pictures and stories about it.

Personally I think choosing any branch of the services to serve in is a noble and wise choice that too few people are still making. Good luck to the young man and his upcoming decision.

Yes, I was hoping Rob would see this.[emoji6]

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[DaveC]

I served 2, 2 year stints.
Meaning I signed up for two and reupped for 2 more before the first two ran out.

I went in at 18 and did a lot of growing up in those 4 years.

I can recommend it, but that’s based on my 27 years ago experience.
The CG is a smaller branch, so the work load is spread out to include everyone with multiple task.
My example to that is while I was a mechanic on our patrol boat I was also the small boat coxswain, then the acting “boarding officer”- and we performed a lot of boardings in the gulf doing fisheries.
Aside from the Patrol boat out of Sabine Pass, I also served on what the Coast Guard calls a ship out of Port Canaveral Florida. Good times were had at both places.

On a side note-
I think the Coast Guard is where my brain got broke.
I left thinking things are to be done by the book or else there were consequences.
The world I live in is about polar opposite of that.


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[RMW]

My dad was in the Coast Guard in the late 60s early 70s, stationed in Portland, Maine. Has told me some great stories

[Blane]

Talked with a couple of guys in Kema one year who I believe were CG and not Navy. Kinda in a patrol boat smaller than the big DPS boats but still had weapon systems mounted. They did marine interdiction. I would bet a tough group to get in with, but would be a lot of fun. Prob. only transition over to LE later down the line.

[MagicBlade]

Great option! Friend of mine's son was trying to get in the CG Academy but they reduced the number allowed this year.
Good luck to the young man!

[AZST_bowhunter]

I was in the navy and eorked in ship navigation and regret not getting my boat captains license while in.. i had the chance to do it but blew it off.. there is a tone you can do with that. Im sure you can go look at the jobs and see ehat applys to real world training. If anything, your son woll do a lot of growing up and gain valuable work experience. Just make sure he tries to do something he thinks he will enjoy, ive seen plenty in the service hating their life because their job sucks.. (cooks, boatswain mate... undes deck depatment..)

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[DaveC]

Haha, “choose your rate , choose your fate” was a common saying when I was in.

They would dangle becoming a cook straight out of boot camp so you’d skip being a non rate (E-2/E-3) and go straight from boot camp to being a petty officer(E-4). Thus skipping the normal non rate status of doing grunt work while you waited for your “A” school opening to come up.

Few E-4 cooks that I ran into enjoyed life. Peel this, cook that day after day gets old I guess.


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