Conflicts

zachserna7

5-Year Member
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Dec 13, 2012
Messages
101
I have a conflict

I want to be an officer in the military, fly planes, and play college baseball.

I have been applying for the Air Force Academy and Naval Academy hoping to fulfill this. I know the Coast Guard has helicopters and I would be interested in doing that also.

The problem is I know nothing about the CGA! Who could I talk to find some info out about it, baseball life at the academy, and the CG and the copter program after graduation?

Anyone with info on this would be great

Thanks
Zach
 
First thing you can do it look at the academy's website and door some reading. There's a chapter in a book called "Rescue Warriors" you might like too about CGA. And there is a CGA book, although it may be dated now.
 
Exactly what LineintheSand said, but I would suggest reading the whole book "Rescue Warriors". IIRC there is a chapter on aviation as well. If you are considering the Coast Guard, you should know more than just about the Academy. You need to understand the missions and be ready to carry them out, whether you make it to flight school or not.

Since you are applying to other service academies, I assume you are a senior this year?
 
Exactly what LineintheSand said, but I would suggest reading the whole book "Rescue Warriors". IIRC there is a chapter on aviation as well. If you are considering the Coast Guard, you should know more than just about the Academy. You need to understand the missions and be ready to carry them out, whether you make it to flight school or not.

Since you are applying to other service academies, I assume you are a senior this year?

Oh right, let me be clear, read the entire book! I really enjoyed it. Some of the "green" agenda from the author was a little distracting, but not really to the detriment of the book (he's an environmentalist, so it isn't entire unexpected).

Also, I think the Army calls them copters or choppers... the Coast Guard generally refers to them as "helos" (HEE-lows).

I feel like "Rescue Warriors" gave a pretty good taste of the Coast Guard, and avoided sugar coating it.

If you like SAR stuff and want to fly, another well done book (and you will find my name somewhere in near the back) is "Deadliest Sea." This book is about a rescue operation in the Bering Sea a few years back. The author, who wrote an earlier, smaller article in Popular Mechanics, captures the "feel" of operations... which isn't easy to do.

So you are thinking about the Coast Guard Academy and want to fly, the two books above are good representations of what to expect AND they're entertaining.

We have some current cadets here and some grads. I'm always happy to answer whatever I can. I graduated in 2006, spent two years on a 210' cutter and three years at HQ in DC. I got out in 2011. And now I'm just another bearded civilian working in DC.
 
We have some current cadets here and some grads. I'm always happy to answer whatever I can. I graduated in 2006, spent two years on a 210' cutter and three years at HQ in DC. I got out in 2011. And now I'm just another bearded civilian working in DC.

Yo Lits, are you still actually working or were you furloughed?
 
I'm not a fed.... so I'm still working. :cool:

My wife is a fed but she's still working. :thumb:
 
Exactly what LineintheSand said, but I would suggest reading the whole book "Rescue Warriors". IIRC there is a chapter on aviation as well. If you are considering the Coast Guard, you should know more than just about the Academy. You need to understand the missions and be ready to carry them out, whether you make it to flight school or not.

Since you are applying to other service academies, I assume you are a senior this year?

Thanks for the help! I will check the book out. Yes I am a senior. Why do you ask?
 
Oh right, let me be clear, read the entire book! I really enjoyed it. Some of the "green" agenda from the author was a little distracting, but not really to the detriment of the book (he's an environmentalist, so it isn't entire unexpected).

Also, I think the Army calls them copters or choppers... the Coast Guard generally refers to them as "helos" (HEE-lows).

I feel like "Rescue Warriors" gave a pretty good taste of the Coast Guard, and avoided sugar coating it.

If you like SAR stuff and want to fly, another well done book (and you will find my name somewhere in near the back) is "Deadliest Sea." This book is about a rescue operation in the Bering Sea a few years back. The author, who wrote an earlier, smaller article in Popular Mechanics, captures the "feel" of operations... which isn't easy to do.

So you are thinking about the Coast Guard Academy and want to fly, the two books above are good representations of what to expect AND they're entertaining.

We have some current cadets here and some grads. I'm always happy to answer whatever I can. I graduated in 2006, spent two years on a 210' cutter and three years at HQ in DC. I got out in 2011. And now I'm just another bearded civilian working in DC.

LITS thanks for the help. I'll check out the books! I will probably post many more questions on here. Thanks for the help!
 
Thanks for the help! I will check the book out. Yes I am a senior. Why do you ask?

Hi, if you have applied to other service academies, then you know the drill. Bear in mind that application to CGA is different in many respects. Check on the application deadlines and specific requirements. The PFE is different than the other academies. But more importantly, make sure the missions of the Coast Guard are what you are interested in. And they do have fixed wing aircraft, not just helos.

As an aside, my son is a 4/c cadet at CGA, so some of this is fairly fresh with me. I was not in any of the services, so I don't have that experience.
 
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