I am looking into the Coast Guard’s direct commission aviator program and am looking for some info about life in the Coast Guard in general, and Coast Guard aviation in particular. It is very likely that (if I get picked up) I would get picked as a helo pilot, and probably as an H-60 pilot (I have prior Navy H-60 experience).
Any info would be appreciated, but here are some of my specific questions:
How often to helo pilots deploy on cutters? How long are they gone?
What is the typical routine for a station pilot? How often are they on duty? What types of other duties besides flying do CG pilots do?
Do Coasties promote as quickly as, say, Navy officers? I believe I’d come in as a LTjg, but am curious how long it would be before I promoted to LT and LCDR.
What types of other assignments after an initial station tour are there for pilots?
How likely are you to get your choice of orders/stations?
Do USCG pilots get an aviation bonus?
How competitive is the direct commission program right now?
Thanks!
If you don’t get enough answers, here, you might try posting your questions on the MY Coast Guard Message Board.
In addition to tomndebb’s link, check out the CG messgae boards at Military.com. There are several aviation boards there.
I’ll take a stab at one question:
CG AVDETS that deploy on cutters could be gone as long as six months in rare cases. Polar class breakers take aviators along, and they have lengthy trips. Cool work, I’ll bet. (pun intended). Also, sometimes the 378’ cutters will deploy up to 6 months. The other flight deck cutters - 210s and 270s will deploy anywhere from 1-3 months a whack. How the determination is made as to what AVDETS go, and where they are from, I do not know.
Good luck with that. Despite my ties to the cutters & boats, I’ve always held the CG aviators in the highest regard - they often fly in some brutally hard conditions, and always seem to come away mission accomplished. Many, many people owe their lives to those folks. At any rate, I don’t think they get paid enough - especially the crews out of Kodiak.
Thanks for the links. The CG forum on military.com seemed more active so I re-posted over there.