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soccerchic

5-Year Member
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Dec 2, 2012
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Hi everyone! I'm curious about jobs upon commission. Are some jobs involved with the Navy? Is everyone sent to a small ship or cutter? Are they deployed all around the world or tend to stay in the states? Thanks in advance!!
 
As an Ensign (immediate graduate), the job descriptions are fairly limited, but they expand for the second tour as a LTJG.

Right out of the Academy you could:

Be a Deck Watch Officer (DWO) serving on a variety of cutters. Some are white hulled and have a focus on law enforcement. Others are black and focus on buoy tending. Then we have red ones that focus on ice breaking. However, the Coast Guard is a multi-mission service, so you could be saving lives at sea one day, boarding a ship on another, or interdicting migrants on yet another. Most Academy graduates become DWO's for their first tour.

Become an Engineering Officer in Training (EOIT), otherwise known as student engineers. You will be responsible for ensuring that the engines and auxilary systems on the cutter are operational and in working order.

Be assigned to flight training. Have dreams of taking to the skies and plucking people out of the water? For many (myself included), this was the big draw to the USCGA. Around 10% of the graduating class can be assigned to flight training, but you can still apply for flight school at your first unit if you don't get it the first time around.

Sector- Prevention and Response. These jobs are on land and involved maritime safety and security. Unfortunately I don't know too much about these jobs since the Academy doesn't tell us much about them. Typically 5% of the class will be assigned to a sector.

Your options explode for the second tour as a LTJG. You could go to flight school! You could become the CO of an 87' patrol boat! You could deploy to Bahrain and serve as OPS or XO on a 110' patrol boat. Grad School! There's an exchange program with the Navy where you serve on a Navy ship. You could go to the Tactical Law Enforcement Team, and be in charge of Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETs) while deployed/attached to a Navy vessel.
 
Thank you! This helped a lot!! Just one more question- Are pilot slots are hard to get?
 
Thank you! This helped a lot!! Just one more question- Are pilot slots are hard to get?

Rumor control has it that there are 20 slots open for flight this year out of about 230 cadets, if that helps.
 
Rumor control has it that there are 20 slots open for flight this year out of about 230 cadets, if that helps.

It's been around 20 for the past couple of years...2012 had 24 slots for around 240 people if I remember correctly. Is you DD applying?
 
It's been around 20 for the past couple of years...2012 had 24 slots for around 240 people if I remember correctly. Is you DD applying?

It will probably be around 20 for the foreseeable future. There are fewer afloat billets available because there are less 378's and the current leadership does not like to send Ensigns to ashore billets. This has opened up the 110' jobs as well as allowed the detailers to send the max number of people (which I believe is 10% of the class) to flight school.
 
It will probably be around 20 for the foreseeable future. There are fewer afloat billets available because there are less 378's and the current leadership does not like to send Ensigns to ashore billets. This has opened up the 110' jobs as well as allowed the detailers to send the max number of people (which I believe is 10% of the class) to flight school.

You don't know how much joy that news brings to me. And failing that straight out of the academy, a 110' doesn't sound too bad
 
I have friends applying for flight school who are taking Naut Sci in the spring semester... needless to say if they get it, their plans for the final include writing "When am I ever going to use this at flight school" on their exams. ^_^
 
I have friends applying for flight school who are taking Naut Sci in the spring semester... needless to say if they get it, their plans for the final include writing "When am I ever going to use this at flight school" on their exams. ^_^

Ha, and the answer is "when you don't finish flight school..."
 
I have friends applying for flight school who are taking Naut Sci in the spring semester... needless to say if they get it, their plans for the final include writing "When am I ever going to use this at flight school" on their exams. ^_^

What are you looking at STN?
 
That's one of the main reasons for the interview though, to determine if the applicant has the drive/maturity to finish flight school.

No doubt anyone making it through an academy has the knowledge to get through flight school, however, now and then someone has an issue with actually flying.


Whether airdales like to admit it or not, it's still a maritime service.
 
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