USCG Opportunities and Careers
The Coast Guard is broken up into three main divisions: air operations, operations afloat, and shore operations.
Air operations deal with the use of Coast Guard aviation assets to accomplish the eleven core missions of the USCG. Currently, the USCG's inventory includes MH-60 Jayhawk and MH-65 Dolphin helicopters, and HC-130 Super Hercules, HU-25 Guardian, and HC-144 Ocean Sentry fixed wing aircraft. Coast Guard aviators do everything from airborne use-of-force (shooting out engines on drug boats) to search and rescue.
Operations afloat will take you aboard a USCG cutter, the workhorse of the service. The cutter fleet is broken down into white hulls (law enforcement), black hulls (construction and buoy tenders), and red hulls (icebreakers). There are two pathways available to junior officers station aboard cutters. The first is deck watch officer, which entails driving and navigating the cutter. The other is student engineer, which deals with operating and maintaining the cutter's propulsion systems and other machinery.
Shore operations for officers are mostly at sectors, which are like the Coast Guard's regional field offices. Sectors coordinate operations between small boat stations, air stations, and cutters. Junior officers assigned to sectors will typically end up in either the prevention or the response community. Prevention officers inspect commercial vessels to ensure they meet Coast Guard standards, while response officers conduct security boardings of high risk vessels and other law enforcement operations.
As you progress in your career, there are many other jobs that open up, such as XO or CO of a cutter, congressional staff duties, headquarters positions, research and development, naval engineering, and even teaching at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
Coast Guard cutters frequently visit ports of call in other countries, and a typical sea period could be anywhere from 16 hours on a buoy tender to 8 months on an icebreaker.
The opportunities in the Coast Guard are plentiful, and I hope you keep considering USCGA as a potential place for you.
Go Bears!