Paths to commission in the Coast Guard.

sheriff3

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DS was talking to one of his frat brothers about CG. What are the paths one can take to commission in the CG?
 
I would narrow it down to four GENERAL ways, although there are different methods within each path.

1. U.S. Coast Guard Academy - pretty obvious... four year college, commission upon graduation. About 40% of the officer corps in the Coast Guard came from CGA.

2. Officer Candidate School - historically OCs come through the fleet or from colleges (as gradutes). There is an active duty and reserve program.

3. Direct Commission - This usually involves certain specialties, such as lawyers or medical professionals from the private sector, or officers from other services. Direct Commission Aviators fall into this category (according to me....). You may get some cross-commissioning here too...

4. Other - I'm not entirely sure what it's called, but from time to time you'll see senior enlisted, or chief warrant officers, apply for officer promotions. I worked with a guy who was a public affairs chief, was selected for chief warrant officer, and eventually went "Warrant to Lieutenant".
 
The Coast Guard also has an ROTC-like program called the College Student Pre-Commisionning Initiative. It is offered at at schools outlined below...

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)
Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI)
Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU)
University of Guam
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hilo and West Oahu
Argosy Universtiy - Hawaii
Institute of American Indian and Alaskan Native Culture
Online degrees do not qualify.

CGRC may consider, on a case-by-case basis, schools not included in this section that have had a minority student population averaging at least 50% of the total student enrollment for the past three years.


Does anyone know what percentage of officers come through this program?

Nicole
 
I would use "ROTC-like" very VERY loosely when describing C-SPI. It's probably better not to associate the two. Keep in mind, these kinds of programs still have to go through the commissioning process...

We use to have a GREAT one page stat sheet.... but that was years ago now.

Side note, CGRC stands for Coast Guard Recruiting Command.
 
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