How often are you in situations such as these? From what is reported on newscasts, it seems pretty rare, but to make a career out of it, they must happen more often than most think!
Well, in special cases such as Search and Rescue (SAR), this happens everyday in the CG. When I first joined, I got stationed in Charleston, S.C. at a small boat station. These stations are made up of quick response boats and their primary mission and training is focused on SAR. On an average week, we saw about two to three cases a week, and really it also depends on where you are. If you are at a station at a busy port like Charleston and Miami where there are a lot of boaters, the likeliness of SAR is greater than at a less busier ports. SAR is great work, and boy is it an adrenaline rush to race out there and save someone, and its very rewarding. We used to say we would rather save a life for our country than take one, and to be honest, thats true for me.
Now I am on a 378' Coast Guard Cutter out of Honolulu and now the mission aspects I deal with here are different to that of a small boat station. We still do SAR, but because we are a bigger platform, we can do high-seas SAR (i.e. the Perfect Storm) and other missions like catching drug-smugglers in the east pacific. Last time we went down there, we caught 3.2 tons of cocaine and stopped it from coming to the U.S.. Its awesome work to do that. A lot of effort goes into it and there is a lot more to it than it seems as far as planning and logistics and operations, but its truly great.
What are some of the other options, other than OS? I remember reading on the official website that there is naval engineering, marine safety, etc...do you know of anyone who went into another area and enjoys it?
Im sure you understand the difference between enlisted and officer. Enlisted are those who join the regular way and climb up the chain form the bottom, whereas officers are a part of the command cadre and they either have gone to the CG Academy in Connecticut, or have a degree of some sort and went to Officer Candidate School. I am enlisted (which is better
) but its up to you how you go about it. The CG recruiting website will show you the different rates (jobs) you can chose to become in your enlisted career. Should you go Officer, it also breaks down some of the options of study. In enlisted, you can be a cook, a storekeeper, a yeoman (administration), an electrician, a mechanic, an electrical systems specialist, IT, and many more. The cool thing is unlike most other services, you choose what you want to be rather than get directed to do something in your career that you may not want to be. And because you choose what you want to be, everyone is pretty content with their job.
I am not quite sure I understand...some join the CG thinking is going to be run as the other services in what way...and how is it different?
Other services' forte is during combat time, in the heat of war. That's what we are here for, is to protect our nation, and the Coast GUard is in the midst of that idea as well. We have teams out there training with the Navy and Marines and cutters ready to answer. However, along with that, the CG has a daily role of defending our nation from the homefront as well as providing service to our nation in the aspect of SAR and other things. Everyone knows that when it comes to SAR, we are the pros, so people tend to think thats all we are good at and forget about our compatibility with the DOD. Anywho, many people join thinking they're eihter gonna do everything in SAR or others join thinking we train all day and we are just backup to the Navy. We are a multi-faceted service, so people are surprised when they get on a big cutter like the one Im on and go out for months at a time to foreign ports, simply because they didnt expect it. Most people are flexible to it and adjust quickly, but others stay stuborn and bitter, and its unfortunate. Like every job, you'll have days when you just dont know how your work is helping the greater good. Believe me , I've had that, but it does, and my faith helps a lot to understand that.
So other that a little physical preparation not much else is required to prepare for?
Its hard but fun at the end, cause you mature so much. oh and youll discover muscles you never knew you had!
I never expected to hear that the stress level for CG Basic is so highly rated!! If you can remember two years ago, what was your average day like and what about the training was stressful?
To deal with the things we deal with like SAR and the posibility of death up front and repatriating illegal migrants who just want to come to America to have better lives, all these make it stressful, so it makes sense for boot to be stressful. I remember lots of things. We'd get up everyday at 0530 and go to chow, then go to training class, then somehow we messed up, so they "beat" us (push-ups, situps, you know, the good stuff", then we went to chow again, which by the way is only 20 min, then we went to another class, then we got beat again, then we went to workout at the gym, do tests and run, then we ate dinner, then we went to another class, then got beat again, then went to sleep. Yeah, it was long days, but it got fun towards the end. tThe key to boot camp is if you are gonna stick out, make sure its because you are doing an awesome job and you are stellar. If not, and you're getting extra attention for being stubborn, you'll pay for it
Remember, they're there to help you.
