Coast Guard Officer v. Enlisted

nature boy said:
If he doesn't care about money while in or retired, then go enlisted. If he does want to be in a better place financially, officer route is the way to go. My Dad had me talk to three retired enlisted servicemen and two retired officers. All of them loved the time they spent in their respective service, but if given a choice of doing it over again all of the enlisted said they would do it via the officer route, better active and retired pay and better housing accommodations were their rationale.
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I really think enlisted pay is low for what they do. Having said that, pay is not everything but it's something! Look at the 01 and 02 pay scales compared to E2-3. Officer pay is very good these days.
 
ekb1398 is spot on! Don’t forget the enlistment extension after “A” school! Gonna have to knock the burnt meatloaf off the tray before your knocking on narc subs.
 
kfd217 said:
ekb1398 is spot on! Don’t forget the enlistment extension after “A” school! Gonna have to knock the burnt meatloaf off the tray before your knocking on narc subs.
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Just to clarify - this isn't for ALL A schools, just the ones with a long wait. There is a minimum amount of time that must be remaining on your contract upon graduation from A school, as they don't want to pay a bunch of money and only get three months of service out of you, just not a good return on investment. Maybe @kfd217 knows the exact time?
 
ekb1398 said:
Just to clarify - this isn't for ALL A schools, just the ones with a long wait. There is a minimum amount of time that must be remaining on your contract upon graduation from A school, as they don't want to pay a bunch of money and only get three months of service out of you, just not a good return on investment. Maybe @kfd217 knows the exact time?
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Not 100%...but worth investigating if someone will be in that position. If I could guess I would say 2 years.
 
I'm an active duty coast guardsman who left a commissioning route in another branch to enlist. Without giving to much personal information away, I feel like this question was made for me and would love to share my perspective with you.
 
NavyOption451 said:
I'm an active duty coast guardsman who left a commissioning route in another branch to enlist. Without giving to much personal information away, I feel like this question was made for me and would love to share my perspective with you.
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The OP stopped responding on 2 Feb but I hope she reaches out to you. I also served 15 years enlisted before commissioning and continuing to serve 19 more (and counting) as an officer...all reserves across two services. One of my four military career fields was with an MCIO and my 25-yr civilian career was also federal law enforcement with a major agency.

I, too, would be more than happy to share my perspective if the OP wants to PM me.
 
I am strongly advising DS to take advantage now of his opportunity to get a college education. He will have to decide which colleges to apply and whether to pursue NROTC or the CSPI. He will have two years of college before he has to commit to commissioning. He can always decide not to commission and to enlist. The Coast Guard has a lot of people enlisting with college degrees today. I think he would be better off enlisting with his college out of the way.

The problem with enlisting in any branch is that you never know what job you will get in the service and you must be prepared for that. Example, his best friend just enlisted in USMC and his MOS is 3111 “Freight Operations Man.” I don’t think he is too excited about that. But that is what he will be doing for four years.
 
I had lunch yesterday with a long time friend and business acquaintance. In attendance was a co-worker of my friend that I just met. Over lunch, my friend mentioned that DS was a USCGA graduate. The co-worker asked several questions about what DS was doing. He later mentioned that he turned down a USNA spot, because as an 18 year old, the commitment was too daunting to process. He is doing well, but said that to this day he regrets his decision.
 
rjb said:
I had lunch yesterday with a long time friend and business acquaintance. In attendance was a co-worker of my friend that I just met. Over lunch, my friend mentioned that DS was a USCGA graduate. The co-worker asked several questions about what DS was doing. He later mentioned that he turned down a USNA spot, because as an 18 year old, the commitment was too daunting to process. He is doing well, but said that to this day he regrets his decision.
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"No regerts." Life's too short to look back. Push ahead and make the best of every opportunity in front, disregarding those that fell by the wayside.
 
NJROTC-CC said:
I am strongly advising DS to take advantage now of his opportunity to get a college education. He will have to decide which colleges to apply and whether to pursue NROTC or the CSPI. He will have two years of college before he has to commit to commissioning. He can always decide not to commission and to enlist. The Coast Guard has a lot of people enlisting with college degrees today. I think he would be better off enlisting with his college out of the way.

The problem with enlisting in any branch is that you never know what job you will get in the service and you must be prepared for that. Example, his best friend just enlisted in USMC and his MOS is 3111 “Freight Operations Man.” I don’t think he is too excited about that. But that is what he will be doing for four years.
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That's really not true to be honest. First, the Navy gives you a one year grace period with a scholarship. Sec9nd, you have every opportunity in each branch to choose a career field you like. In the CG we have guaranteed a schools and an undersigned program where you are 100% guaranteed to go to an A school that you request if you put your name on it. In the navy you're gonna know what job you get before you go to bootcamp. Officers also have lost options for a speciality as well as being contracted well before they receive their specialty. This is in each branch.
 
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NavyOption451 said:
That's really not true to be honest. First, the Navy gives you a one year grace period with a scholarship. Sec9nd, you have every opportunity in each branch to choose a career field you like. In the CG we have guaranteed a schools and an undersigned program where you are 100% guaranteed to go to an A school that you request if you put your name on it. In the navy you're gonna know what job you get before you go to bootcamp. Officers also have lost options for a speciality as well as being contracted well before they receive their specialty. This is in each branch.
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If he does Navy ROTC without a scholarship, he will have no commitment until he makes advanced standing after sophomore year. If he does CSPI that does not start until Junior year.

As far as guarantees of A schools in the CG, that is not what I am hearing from a friend of DS who went though Cape May last summer. He wants maritime enforcement officer. He says there is a four (4) year wait list. people are not getting that rating until their second tour, if they’re lucky. That young man was deployed to a cutter right out of Mayport and has not even been to A school yet. I personally don’t believe anything anyone says about being guaranteed the job you want in any branch unless you get it in your contract when you enlist (and the CG won’t do that in enlistment contracts from what I hear.)

But my point is: Get college out of the way up front if you have the opportunity. There’s no guarantee the opportunity or the time will be there later on down the road. Wit
 
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NJROTC-CC said:
If he does Navy ROTC without a scholarship, he will have no commitment until he makes advanced standing after sophomore year. If he does CSPI that does not start until Junior year.

As far as guarantees of A schools in the CG, that is not what I am hearing from a friend of DS who went though Cape May last summer. He wants maritime enforcement officer. He says there is a four (4) year wait list. people are not getting that rating until their second tour, if they’re lucky. That young man was deployed to a cutter right out of Mayport and has not even been to A school yet. I personally don’t believe anything anyone says about being guaranteed the job you want in any branch unless you get it in your contract when you enlist (and the CG won’t do that in enlistment contracts from what I hear.)

But my point is: Get college out of the way up front if you have the opportunity. There’s no guarantee the opportunity or the time will be there later on down the road. Wit
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The coast guard slashed the waitlist for the ME rating recently. Many of my friends are now planning on participating in the ME RAP program which allows you become a boarding team member as a Nonrate before A School. My advice is to let him decide himself. He may leave after four years but thats free Healthcare and college and many, many life lessons and character traits carried over. Or he may retire as an officer 30 years from now. Im not anyone important, I can only go off my own experience and I am not even close to a recruiter, but I welcome anyone to enlist and get four years of life experience under there belt before college.
 
I have been "out of the game" far too long to offer current advice as to how things are done, but I can say that if your son desires to be any type of "Criminal Investigator" versus "Federal Officer" (investigations versus patrol) he will need either a Bachelors Degree (at minimum) or expect to serve at least some significant time in uniform not doing investigations or undercover to get the requisite experience to fall under a "training agreement" to get GS-1811 designation.

You still need that Bachelors Degree to get direct hire (no other job experience) for any 1811 position, and can still get to that 1811 via other GS Series after gaining experience. The CG (as a Boarding officer or L/E Officer) is really only relevant if you want a "anti smuggling" job on the water or involving things happening on the water. Both CBP and DEA have marine assets. Army CID, USCG Investigative Service, and Air Force Special Investigations (NCIS has no military members that I am aware of) are more likely to help with a Criminal Investigative job (1811-Series, FBI, DEA, HSI, US Marshall, etc) since they all meet the job parameters of "Criminal Investigator" (1811 Series) where being an ME. BM, MK, OS, Regular Commissioned Officer, or other Maritime L/E related experience is VERY narrow in the scheme of Investigations. Generally, CG L/E people are NOT allowed to do investigations, only patrol or using given intel, but CG experience is good for patrol type L/E jobs. Army CID, CGIS, and AF Special Investigations all have limited "Warrant or Commissioned Officer" positions that work with the civilian GS-1811's and are considered "Criminal Investigators" and trained accordingly.

If you want to be an investigator with one of the "alphabet" agencies, better to get that Bachelors Degree and do direct hire with the agency he desires. If he wants to serve first, and for a limited time, IMHO he would be well served by enlisting in the CG, no other service is going to give him the L/E background the CG will.
 
Totally agree. I have advised him to get a bachelors degree and obtain a commission through ROTC or CSPI or OCS. Serve a few years and then stay on as a reserve officer while pursuing a law degree. He could do all that before age 30 and be a good candidate for a Federal alphabet agency. Hope he listens.

P.S. - He spoke with a friend who graduated last year and enlisted in USCG. He went through Cape May last summer. He did very well in basic and was on a drill team. Nevertheless, as of yesterday, he was a non-rated seaman assigned to scraping and painting boats. No A School on the horizon for him yet. He feels like he was misled by his recruiter. Sure, he can have a great career if he works hard and sticks to it and he will eventually get an A School. But I think my son can do better than scraping and painting boats. Sorry if that sounds elitist.
 
NJROTC-CC said:
But I think my son can do better than scraping and painting boats. Sorry if that sounds elitist.
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Well, there's a good chance he'll have to.... so, while I hope all can do better than scraping and painting.... we all have to start somewhere. I should add, enlisting isn't a sure thing either.
 
I am so happy to say my DD received CSPI this year. She missed it LY as they took less because of covid. My friends son just got OCS the competition was tough.

Carefully plan it out, the resume grades and major plays very important roles in a very competitive pool. More grads coming out of college and not landing those jobs more applying for OCS.

The number for LY selected for CSPI was 24, buried in an old thread there are 60 max spots. Average spots around 30 in my stalking various boards... CSPI is open to everyone, but it was created for diversity.
 
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No1Fanof2 said:
I am so happy to say my DD received CSPI this year. She missed it LY as they took less because of covid. My friends son just got OCS the competition was tough.

Carefully plan it out, the resume grades and major plays very important roles in a very competitive pool. More grads coming out of college and not landing those jobs more applying for OCS.

The number for LY selected for CSPI was 24, buried in an old thread there are 60 max spots. Average spots around 30 in my stalking various boards... CSPI is open to everyone, but it was created for diversity
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DS is likely going to start out in NROTC as a college programmer and then apply to CSPI. If he doesn’t get CSPI he will have to decide between staying in NROTC for advanced standing or dropping NROTC, completing his bachelor’s and then enlisting the Coast Guard.

Are you saying that nationally there were 24 people selected for CSPI last year? If that is true and my DS is not a minority that would suggest he has very little chance of getting CSPI
 
CSPI eligibility is initially based on coming from a qualifying school. Go read up on which institutions are eligible for the program, and then what your son would need to do to get in from that school.
The College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative (CSPI) is a scholarship program designed for college juniors and seniors attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities, who demonstrate a high caliber of academic and leadership excellence.
https://www.gocoastguard.com/CSPIScholarship
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EDIT: There are case by case exceptions to this. A fuller explanation is here:
https://www.gocoastguard.com/active.../college-student-pre-commissioning-initiative

  • Schools not designated as an MSI may be considered on a case-by-case basis provided that they had a minority student population averaging at least 50% of the total student enrollment for the previous three years. If your school is not listed and you are unsure if your school meets the eligibility criteria, please contact your local recruiter.
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StPaulDad said:
CSPI eligibility is initially based on coming from a qualifying school. Go read up on which institutions are eligible for the program, and then what your son would need to do to get in from that school.


EDIT: There are case by case exceptions to this. A fuller explanation is here:
https://www.gocoastguard.com/active.../college-student-pre-commissioning-initiative
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I know that it’s only available through minority serving institutions. That’s not the question. The question is how many slots are there nationally? And, more importantly, does a Caucasian have any realistic chance of getting into the program?
 
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