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I have been thinking of enlisting in the Coast Guard. I would like to get a degree in Criminal Justice/law enforcement and I think that the CG will be a really good fit for something like that. I would like to hear from current or former coasties about Basic Training, what kind of work you do/did, and any other advice you'd like to give me about the Coast Guard. Thanks!
My son is stationed in Alaska aboard a cutter. He isn't happy about being so far away from home, but he likes being aboard ship. He has been aboard this cutter for two years, I think. Before that he was at two different small boat stations on the Great Lakes. Did search and rescue, law enforcement boarding foreign ships looking for contraband.
Let's see; it has been 10 years since he did basic........ be sure to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated; all the way home from his graduation I heard nothing but how much water people should be drinking..... Can you sew? He had quite a little business going sewing patches on uniforms.... even the women in his company came to him because they couldn't sew either.
Don't want to sound discouraging because I think it is very admirable that you want to serve your country and that you are choosing the Coast Guard. Just like other branches of the military and as it is in the private sector as well, The USCG is being hit by the economy. It is my understanding that recruitment quotas are down, so they are getting really choosy. Have you taken the ASVAB yet? Do you have any college? If you don't have a high school diploma, you must have a GED and 10 or 15 hours of college to demonstrate your academic ability.
Here is a site that can answer some of your questions.
I have been thinking of enlisting in the Coast Guard. I would like to get a degree in Criminal Justice/law enforcement and I think that the CG will be a really good fit for something like that. I would like to hear from current or former coasties about Basic Training, what kind of work you do/did, and any other advice you'd like to give me about the Coast Guard. Thanks!
What does serving in the CG have to do with earning a degree?
Let me first start off and say I hope everything you want comes true. But as a Former Marine MP, wanted to tell you we used to ask all the coasties we met...we thought you needed to be over 6 foot tall so you could walk to the boat and not get your hair wet no matter where it was. Of course we were just jealous that we were going off on some Navy ship that would be gone for months and not on their cutters that come back to port every day or so.
Let me first start off and say I hope everything you want comes true. But as a Former Marine MP, wanted to tell you we used to ask all the coasties we met...we thought you needed to be over 6 foot tall so you could walk to the boat and not get your hair wet no matter where it was. Of course we were just jealous that we were going off on some Navy ship that would be gone for months and not on their cutters that come back to port every day or so.
Whoa! Where did you get the idea that the cutters come back to port every day or two?!? My son is gone from his family two to three months at a time. The cutters from Alaska that are supervising skimmers in the Gulf right now don't go home every night either. I get that you are making a joke, but unfortunately too many people think of the USCG as a joke and treat them like an unwanted stepchild. They do not appreciate the work done by Coasties when other branches of the military have deemed it too dangerous to be in open seas. And if you think I am joking, google the name Douglas Munro and see how the Marines felt about him, my friend.
Since don't have a huge number of credits, look into ROTC programs, even in other branches...You'll get paid and paid tuition to get your four year degree and should become an officer afterwords.
All branches offer GI Bills and Tuition Assistance, there's no way to predict how much time you'll have to work on school. Some commanders encourage you to do school during downtime when you're on the clock and while others outright ban it. It's also impossible to predict how much time you'll "on the clock". In the Air Force, many jobs are 40 hours a week, but security forces (military police) commonly work 72 hours a week.
Let me also add, slightly off topic ..... skip the CJ degree. Get something else useful ... even history, business, etc. That was you have something to fall back on, should you not reach your goal of becoming a law enforcement officer.
Let me also add, slightly off topic ..... skip the CJ degree. Get something else useful ... even history, business, etc. That was you have something to fall back on, should you not reach your goal of becoming a law enforcement officer.
Mmmm...I'm not so sure many would agree that history or business are more useful than CJ.
At some point I was going to start a separate thread on military education. To my understanding, current rules with tuition assistance or TA only allow one bachelors and one masters. A trick has been to skip one elective class, complete all the uppers so you're only one elective away from a degree than "re-declare" to something different. When you re-declare a new major, you could already have 75% classes transfer to another major. Management, finance and healthcare administration are all within business. So you get finance, management and healthcare done except for the one elective, than finish the last elective and boom, you get three differing degrees. If you know your going to make the military career, if you work your tail off you could have possibly have a MBA in one enlistment term thus forfeiting any future tuition assistance.
I think a great deal is to become a physically therapist assistant or PTA. Not to be confused with a physically therapist AIDE, which can be hired off the street. PTA is an associates degree, there are some online schools but require in person clinicals...You also need to take and pass a state exam, which is also paid for by the Uncle Sam. It takes two years, but if you CLEP/DSST your tail off for the electives, you can possibly become a PTA in a year. A PTA is generally an extremely low stress health care job that you can start around $20/hour. Also the Associates can role into bachelors.
Another valuable strategy is to become a real engineer; I say real because if it says TECHNOLOGIES in the title it's not a real engineering degree. A Mostly online school is UND or Univeristy of North Dakota. You still need to show up on campus for labs once a year, but dozens of military folks do it. I could only imagine someone coming out of high school, joining the military, earning a PTA and an electrical engineering degree at 22 years and separating and still having the GI Bill for a masters.
Last edited by TheJagMan; 08-06-2010 at 11:17 AM..
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