Cross Commission USCGA to USMC

IIImkusa

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Dec 22, 2016
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Is it possible to cross commission from the Coast Guard Academy into the Marine Corps as an officer upon graduation?
 
Nope. Coast Guard Academy graduates commission in the Coast Guard. On very rare occasions, due to health related disqualifications, they graduate without a commission.
 
Why do you want to attend the Coast Guard Academy and commission in another service?
 
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Is that because of the DHS vs DOD set up?

Yes. I think that's the issue. I know someone who wanted to cross commission to the Air Force (his eyes weren't good enough for flight school in the Coast Guard) and they found it wasn't possible.

My understanding is it was the DHS to DOD issue.
 
I've been wondering about this for a while -- for what reason exactly do cross commissions happen? I've sometimes heard that if one's fiance/spouse is in a different branch, they might cross commission. But otherwise, is it just a career choice perhaps? Is it difficult to get approval to cross commission?
 
Between the 3 SAs that fall under the DoD it can be a for a variety of reasons. My class had two cross commission into the USAF. We had a USMA grad in my TBS class. All of them had a reason and more than anything it was up to them to seek out a mentor in that respective service on campus and push their packages through. No one was going to do it for them. It took a great deal of work to explain their story and put together all the paperwork. They all had very solid records, knew no one would advocate for them but themselves and knew their chances were limited and had to be willing to live with it.

The two guys who went USAF were both Air Force brats. They both did a semester at USAFA. The USMA grad had one of the rare chances to do summer training with Marines. He fell in love with the USMC and wanted to be an infantry officer in the USMC. He was a great guy and all of the USNA guys sort of took him under our wing at TBS as one of our own. I had a friend a year ahead of me who went Army because she married an Army guy. My room mate married a USMA grad and stayed USN. I had another buddy who went Army because he wanted to be special forces and didn't have the eye sight for SEALs (this was pre-lasik days).
 
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We had a sponsor daughter at USNA who was gung-ho Marines from Day One. She spent an exchange semester at USMA and fell in love with some of the career fields there. After careful thought and discussions with both Marine and Navy mentors, she persevered with the cross-commission process, attending both Marine Leatherneck and Army summer training blocks in her firstie summer. She found a better fit for herself, the stars aligned on both sides, and she was successful.

Look at it like a relationship you've been in for a few years. An attraction develops for someone else. It's either transient or enough to make you go through the steps to break up with current steady and pursue the new relationship!
 
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