In a rather unexpected - and by that I mean completely unexpected - series of events I’ve started to consider possibly joining the Coast Guard. Why? They have some jobs I’m interested in, and it’ll provide (paid!) training for me to learn one of those jobs, and I’ll definitely have a decent salary for the next 4-6 years, which is a lot better than what I’ve found otherwise. And I really do like the humanitarian and just utilitarian mission of the CG - they save people and keep drugs off the streets and keep boats from crashing into the land and such, which are all things I support.
On the other hand, I have some concerns, mostly having to do with the fact that I am so not a military type of person, have absolutely no meaningful experience in any sort of boat, am not sure how I’d feel if I needed to go chance a fruit basket full of emaciated Haitians back to Haiti, and…well, I’m 23 and a college grad, and while I’m not interested in becoming an officer, I’m not sure how ridiculous I’d feel A) enlisting with a bunch of 18-year-old drop-outs, and B) committing to one job until I’m nearly thirty. Four years is a long time, and by the time I’d be done I’d be ridiculously old to start a civilian career.
According to the recruiter I talked to, of course, the Coast Guard is the best thing ever, but he was really annoyingly professional and didn’t at all give me a hard sell*. My sister is Air Force officer who went through the Academy and did a semester at the Coast Guard Academy; she surprised the hell out of me by saying that she thought it might be a good option for me. So on the one hand, it’s definitely an appealing option. On the other hand…I don’t know that I can even imagine myself doing it, because it’s so far from how I’ve always thought of myself.
I’m interested in any and all opinions on the Coast Guard in general. I’m particularly interested in if anyone’s had bad experiences (eg, “I enlisted two years ago and it’s HELL”), because I’ve been looking around, and everything about them is eerily positive.
I have several friends that joined the CG, and all had a fantastic experience. I was Army, though so I certainly had a different military experience. I’ve often thought that if I could do it all again, I’d be a Coastie.
Technically, the Coast Guard isn’t part of the military, but it’s probably the least military of any of the uniformed services.
Don’t worry about being older than the average recruit; you’re probably not going to be alone. And don’t worry about being “too old” to start a civilian career when you get out, because if anything, it’ll make you a stronger and more attractive candidate. You develop a lot of self-discipline and teamwork skills, which employers like. Heck, one of the military’s selling points is that you can retire with a half-pension after 20 years, then start a civilian career. You also get preference for government employment.
I think it would be awesome to join the coast guard; I looked into it a few years ago but alas, I’m too old.
We have a local coast guard station, and I’m always watching those guys scuba dive and run around in helicopters and neato boats. They also have kick ass living quarters right on the beach.
See, that’s what I mean: I’ve yet to find or even hear of someone who hasn’t allegedly loved the CG. I know it’s a relatively small organization but seriously, there must be people out there who join and realize that their particular corner of the Coast Guard is run by incompetent idiots and it sucks. Either these people A) don’t exist (extremely unlikely), B) are getting some nice financial kickbacks in exchange for keeping their mouths shut (even more unlikely), or C) exist but the experience was so horrible they want to forget the whole thing happened and never even think of it again (also unlikely but I guess most plausible). It’s just weird; everything is so one-sidedly positive.
Really? Logically I do know that 27 to 29 is not ancient, but I am very aware that had I joined at the age when most people joined I’d be done by now. 22 is a good age to enter the workforce, people won’t wonder why I couldn’t get a job and had to resort to (quasi) military service when I was already in my twenties*?
*Upon proof reading I know this sounds a bit crazy, but even with the economy as bad as it is I’ve been completely freaking out over having a couple months unaccounted for in my work history. “But NinjaChick,” friends and loved ones say, “You just graduated and some ghastly percentage of recent graduates are unemployed, to say nothing of liberal arts graduates. Unemployment is creeping up to record levels, surely future potential employers will understand that you did not punch people in the face during job interviews but rather were in part a victim of circumstance?” “Bah,” I say. “I should be immune to things like the state of the economy and common sense! I should be superwoman!” And then I go and kick myself for the fact that I haven’t yet personally created a successful peace plan in the middle east nor found a solution for global hunger and poverty yet, either. So please feel free to tell me that my argument is basically retarded.
I know nothing about the Coast Guard, but trust me, it’s really silly to say that 30 is ridiculously old to start a career. Maybe it’s just because I’m in a field where the masters’ is the entry level degree, but it made me laugh out loud.
Brit here,but I think the basic principal applies .
You say that you’re not a military type,I wasn’t either,I held off for years before getting involved in an armed forces experience,no one s going to tell me what to do etc.
Hated basic training but otherwise I loved being in the armed forces,I probably was told more what to do and fucked around when I left and became a civvie then I ever was when I was in.
Go for it girl you’ll love it.
Your argument is basically retarded. (C’mon - someone had to!) No employer is going to count any employment gaps occurring from 2008-2010 against you, trust me. They know, and they’ll know why such gaps occurred. Seriously.
Some people start second, third, or even fourth careers at ages far more advanced than 30, and I know you know that that claim doesn’t really hold any water. And it’s really true that employers do tend to look on military experience as a plus, honest.
I don’t know from the Coast Guard, but I do think that your worries are pretty ill-founded. In all honesty, they make you sound young - but I don’t think that that’s a bad thing, at all. I think that if it interests you, it’s worth checking out further.
A young friend of mine was in the Coast Guard. He was 21-22 when he joined. I don’t think that he loved it but he was happy that he joined it (he’s out now). He intercepted and busted a lot of drug smugglers off the Coast of Florida. Since he was the only guy in his ship’s crew that spoke fluent Spanish, he handled all of the communication between his crew and the smugglers. He was in at least one firefight with smugglers but no one got hurt.
My brother in law was a Coastie. That’s essentially why he was in Florida and met my sister. His job was payload master on the big cargo type planes that they fly, which I couldn’t tell you exactly what it meant, but he’s a handy kind of guy and I’m sure at least got involved in maintenance and probably everything else.
His career was mostly in Florida but he did two tours of duty in Kodiak, Alaska. I think he really enjoyed the work since that’s the sort of thing that gets him jazzed, but like any enlisted guy he had his gripes, probably about the occasional idiot officer and pay.
I’ll tell you the thing that I wouldn’t like about being in the Coast Guard, since you’re looking for negative opinions: the Coast Guard is out there every day, which means that they’re out in the bad stuff as well as the good. They especially are called on in really crappy weather and situations. So if you don’t mind sailing or flying through soup, then you’ll probably be fine. If that idea scares the crap out of you then you’d better be really, really sure of what your job will be.
My brother joined the Coast Guard recently at the age of 25. He got a slot in officer training school going in and although he came about .3 milliseconds from dropping out a few times, he is proud of himself and just moved to his preferred station in Hawaii with his wife. It sounds pretty cool to me. Sometimes I am sorry that I ever dropped out of Air Force ROTC myself.
<anecdote> My next door neighbor and High School classmate came from a family with a deep history of military service. He, however, was extremely squeamish and the thought of being in a war type situation was out of the question for him. He could barely stand to watch a football game.
His compromise was to join the Coast Guard Reserves. On his first required weekend duty, Air Florida flight 90 crashed into the Potomac River and he spent the next few days fishing dead bodies out of the river. </anecdote>
I was in the Army for three years. I got out and then some years later was considering going back in. A career Marine who was a neighbor and a friend of my father’s counseled me to join the Coast Guard. His reasons were this: 1. They do not have huge bases like the other armed forces so the people outside the base do not automatically hate them on sight. 2. They have a real world mission which helps people.
I went back into the Army and retired after twenty two years. It’s not an easy life. If one of my kids wanted to join one of the armed forces, I would try to get them into the Coast Guard.
My stepson and his wife are in the Coast Guard (he met her there). He told me that he was careful not to wear his uniform in certain bars when he was stationed in Massachusetts. Apparently, part of his job was to enforce overfishing and size-limit regulations, which made the Coast Guard very unpopular with certain lobster fishermen.
Even though he and his wife like the Coast Guard enough to make it a career, this doesn’t prevent him from occasionally bitching about the bureaucracy, but this is the first real job he’s ever had. I’ve told him that from what he’s told me, it’s not a whole lot different from what he would find working in a large corporation, and they wouldn’t have given him 30 days vacation a year and free medical care.
This is something I wanted to touch on: you may be required to handle a weapon and kill someone. You’re still in the military.
We had a girl in our squadron who couldn’t pass M9 training because she was “afraid of guns.” I wanted to bang my head into a wall. She joined the military, did she think that she was going to get a magic wand and pixi dust to wish bad people away? Depending on your job the odds of you getting into combat are lessened, but the chance will always be there.
And the Coast Guard usually deals with rescues, but the OP needs to that there is still a chances, albeit a really small one, that she may have to kill someone. The chance may be tiny, but it is still there.