Billet Night

LineInTheSand

LineInTheSand

USCGA 2006
10-Year Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
9,295
When is Billet Night? I'm out of that loop. I would love to know who's coming to my area from the Class of 2008. My landlord will lower our rent if we can find USCG replacements after our departure this summer.



Let me know!:thumb:
 
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First class cadets Soren Rose, Cory Anderson, Lawrence Sheetz and Adam Parga are elated when they open their billet envelopes and discover they will all be headed to Ketchikan, Alaska to serve aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Acushnet after graduating from the Academy. This year 87 percent of the Class of 2008 will serve their first tour afloat.

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First Class Jason Erickson jumps for joy when he finds out he will serve his first tour as a Coast Guard ensign at Coast Guard Sector Memphis, Tenn. Only four percent of the graduating class will report to ashore units after graduating.


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First class cadets Patrick White, Joel Kurucar and Lauren Powers celebrate after finding out they will report to flight training school in Pensacola, Fla. upon graduating from the Coast Guard Academy. Nine percent of cadets from the Class of 2008 will report to flight training school after graduating in May.

:thumb:
 
I'm noticing the girl on the right has glasses.... I thought you had to have 20/20 vision to attend flight training?
 
zachogden said:
I'm noticing the girl on the right has glasses.... I thought you had to have 20/20 vision to attend flight training?
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Nope.

What are qualifications for Coast Guard pilots?

A qualification for flight school includes passing a Class 1 Flight Physical. Two big issues, aside from being in good physical health, are dental and vision requirements. The dental exam will check for cavities and other problems with teeth and gums that may be affected by changes in air pressure while engaged in flight. Basically, you will be required to have no dental problems and no cavities. Vision requirements are also very stringent. Eyesight should be 20/20. If not, it must be correctable to 20/20, no exceptions. Uncorrected visual acuity must be better than 20/50 in either eye. There are other limitations imposed, based on the type and strength of the lens prescription. In addition, normal color perception, depth perception, and field of vision are also required.

http://www.gocoastguard.com/get-the-answers/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-coast-guard

:cool:
 
Thanks. My vision's a lot worse than 20/50, and I was recently talking to my admissions officer about getting into flight school, and what I had gathered was that I would need PRK after graduation at some point before going.
 
Kinda dismal for those wanting to go aviation. Someone had mentioned earlier that it was opening up for immediate grads. Apparently not so.
 
Graduates can be billeted for flight school directly out of the Academy. I had...I think 11 classmates who did that.
 
The point is that neither the nine percent this year or the eleven your year encompasses all who want to fly. I think allowing any at all to go aviation immediately after graduation is a recent change. Historically, all have had to serve a few years on cutters to become eligible for flight training. That, in itself, has both good and bad points but really is not a concern.

Recently, someone on this forum pointed out that the CG allows recruits to enter OCS and then report directly to flight training simply dependent upon where they went to college. That, also, in itself, has both good and bad points but really is not a concern.

What should be a concern is that recruits off the street have opportunities which graduates of the premier officer acquisition source do not have. I can only see two possible signals which this practice is sending, one is that aviation is not important, which I don’t buy, and the other is that those who make the greater commitment are not granted the greater reward. Not a good practice, in my opinion.

Show me another operational career path in another service where non-academy grads have better opportunities than the grads.

The first thing that jumps to mind is fitreps, which are done by rank. In an aviation unit, who is going to get the best LT fitrep, the OCS grad who has been there 3 years and met all his milestones, or the academy grad who is just reporting from flight school?
 
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Interesting in that article and pictures from 1978, the hair was much longer than you would see today...haha...I guess in keeping with the times back then but still a bit surprising.
 
Another thing I noticed in the "today" pictures. I'm wondering if that is the same Cory Anderson who left the Academy for a while to pursue a pro baseball career.
 
Boss - Those were some great pictures - you are right about the hair! Makes me nostalgic (not that I am "old" or anything - :wink:)
The Blizzard of '78 was a "Raging Blizzard", indeed. I remember it well.
 
First, yes it is the same Cory Anderson. He was drafted by the Cubs out of high school but decided on CGA. He was going to be extended, but decided that he didn't want a whole year with the class of 2007 (who can blame him). He went back, played with the Vermont Lake Monster, and I guess returned to the Academy.


Second, the ability for graduating cadets to go to units other than cutters began with the Class of 2004. No where in there was there any idea by cadets that aviation is not important. The Coast Guard is traditionally a sea service, therefore it was regarded as an important step in the service to atleast have one sea tour under your belt before specializing in another area. There aspects of leadership that a cutter will give you that you won't get going straight to flight school. Of course with the modernization of the fleet, some of these afloat billets were eaten up, and some went to OCS grads, so the options of going to a sector or flight school were introduced. It is also important to relay that going afloat your ensign tour will not limit, in any way, follow on assignments, however going to a sector or aviation will. This isn't bad, in general it will limit you to the area you want to focus anyway, but for those going afloat, the aviation and sector spots are still open to you.


I don't know anything about OCS grads getting flight school straight out, and I would venture to guess it is not common, and that you have a greater chance out of CGA.


Maybe the poster was talking about DCA (Direct Commission Aviators), who are pilots from other branches who have seen the light, taken a reduction in rank, and joined the Coast Guard to fly with the Coast Guard. Note, these guys and gals already had wings in the Army, Air Force, or Navy, but wish to fly in the Coast Guard.
 
One a side note, recruits are those at TRACEN Cape May, Officer Candidates are those at OCS. Mixing the two terms can get confusing. I'm going to assume when you were saying recruits, you meant OCs, and if you were talking specifically about the direct commission aviators, you were talking about DCAs (not to be confused with the Damage Control Assistant that you would find on a cutter).
 
LineInTheSand said:
I don't know anything about OCS grads getting flight school straight out, and I would venture to guess it is not common, and that you have a greater chance out of CGA.
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It is the Blue21 program you yourself was just discussing two days ago on the USNA forum.
 
I don't know anything about that program, if you remember correctly I was asking what "minority" meant. I do know while I was there, no more than 1 or 2 flight slots were given to any OCs.
 
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