I’m in the CG. I’ve been enlisted now for 15 years; I just may make a career out of it. The Coast Guard is kind of like an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, smothered in secret sauce, and I could go on for hours about it. I’ll try to stick to your specific questions:
Well that certainly depends on what one would consider an advantage. Some of the more popular “advantages” would be:[ul]
[li]Most assignments are within the US and its territories;[/li][li]Many assignments are down right paradise;[/li][li]A * H U G E * amount of responsibility routinely given to very junior personnel;[/li][li]You can travel the world - even to the North Pole and Antarctica if you’re lucky;[/li][li]Working environments typically less formal than DOD counterparts;[/li][li]The work and the missions are extremely rewarding;[/li][li]I’ll stop here, but I could go on…[/li][/ul]
Those are certainly the more visible missions that we do, but as you guessed, there’s much, much more to it than that. For starters, the CG maintains a large number of cutters ranging in size from 65’ to 420’ in length. The missions of these cutters vary greatly. The largest are the icebreakers. They will deploy for about 6 months at a time and spend much of their time conducting scientific research and helping ships get in and out of McMurdo on Antarctica. They see some pretty nice port calls along the way.
The white cutters, from patrol boats to the almost 400’ high endurance cutters, primarily focus on search & rescue and law enforcement, although they will do just about any mission they’re asked to do. The law enforcement missions include counter narcotics, fisheries enforcement, migrant interdiction ops, recreational boating safety and general enforcement of US laws and treaties, among others. The smaller patrol boats will hang out closer to shore and typically patrol for several days to a month or more. They can be deployed overseas, and right now we have several of them in Iraq right now. The larger cutters will patrol anywhere in the world, usually from 2 to 6 months at a time. There’s usually one hanging out with a Navy fleet somewhere.
The most unsung, overworked and hearty sailors in the Coast Guard can be found on the black hulls, or the buoy tenders. Almost every single buoy in the US and its territories belongs to the Coast Guard, and the buoy tenders set them, fix them, clean them, replace them and repair them. It is very dangerous, dirty and hard work, and those who do it don’t want to do anything else. Those boys and girls earn their pay and then some.
There are tons of other cutters out there, all listed here if you’re curious.
On the shore side of things, there are the small boat stations, or SAR stations, and the AnT (Aids to Navigation) Teams.
The SAR stations are the most visible; they operate the small boats you see zipping around harbors, escorting ships in and out and rescuing people in distress. These stations are typically manned by all enlisted crews. They primarily focus on SAR and law enforcement, but as always, will do just about anything you need them to do. The most visible of these stations are the Lifeboat Stations of the Pacific Northwest, operating the self-righting 47’ motor life boat. They take those boats out into the worst seas in the world, and they like it. They really are the cream of the crop and don’t get paid anywhere near what they should.
The AnT teams are the shore side ‘black hull sailors’, and they keep the lights winking and blinking. They fix and maintain smaller aids to navigation, including lighthouses, ranges, buoys and such. They operate a wide variety of small boats as well. They will also conduct law enforcement and SAR when needed.
Then there are the Air Stations. In addition to what you’d normally think of (SAR helicopters), they operate C-130s and Falcon jets. In addition to the law enforcement patrols and SAR they conduct, they can have some unique missions. For example, since the sinking of the Titanic, the CG has overseen operation of the International Ice Patrol, a unit which tracks icebergs in the North Atlantic. C-130s still fly today conducting this mission. There is also a squadron of armed helicopters that carry machine guns and a sniper rifle and are used for counter-narcotics missions. They are very successful at this mission.
Some of the land jobs, while less “glamorous”, are no less important. The CG, as everyone is now aware, handles port security. Every foreign ship that enters the US is screened and, at some point, inspected by USCG marine safety personnel. They also respond to hazmat and oil spills, natural disasters, accidents and anything else that happens on or near the water.
I’d say I’ve rambled enough here. I’ve left off more of what we do than I’ve included, but those are the most common and visible things we do. I will say that there really isn’t a ‘typical’ CG career. I’ve done a variety of missions and my experience to that end is hardly unique. While most of my time has been spent doing law enforcement and SAR, I’ve also done domestic icebreaking, AtoN, Ice Rescue and currently I do port state control (inspecting foreign ships). My next assignment is another SAR station. The CG, despite it’s lack of massive funding, really does take care of it’s people, which is supported by the fact that our first term attrition rate for enlisted and officers is something like 85%. We do an awful lot of missions with only about 40K people, so we’re usually pretty busy. But it’s a very good kind of busy and very rewarding.
