what other countries do the USCG visit?

coffee4you

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Last year, a cutter stationed at Alaska visited Yokosuka, Japan and CG officer I know was stationed at Puerto Rico.
What other countries do CG visit/station?

If this is inappropriate question, please delete this thread.
Thanks.
 
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Here are the ones I've been to in the last nine years...

Colombia
Curacao
Mexico
Australia
Antarctica
Thaiti
Canada
Grand Cayman


Some other common ones...

Cuba
Panama
El Salvador
Costa Rica
Belize

Really there are so many places you might end up in your career.
 
I went to....

Germany

Spain

United Kingdom

Greece

Bahamas

Haiti

Curaçao

Colombia

Panama

Cuba
 
Here are the ones I've been to in the last nine years...

Colombia Curacao Mexico Australia Antarctica Thaiti Canada Grand Cayman

I’ll point out Puerto Rico is not a country... but Maine almost is...

Thank you for that clarification!!!

I'd like to point out that Antarctica is not a county, but Texas used to be.
Antarctica is indeed not a county....or a country.
 
I'll throw my adventures in there for fun. In the last eight years (which is crazy to think about), I've been to:

Ireland
England
Germany
Italy
Canada
Honduras
Panama
Costa Rica
Mexico
Grand Cayman

St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Island, not to be confused with the British Virgin Islands)
Puerto Rico (U.S. Territory, I knew before this thread it wasn't a country;))

You get a decent amount of travel INCONUS as well, for various trainings, conferences, business trips, etc. Point is, just because the Coast Guard is under DHS, doesn't mean we don't get the opportunity to travel. From my perspective, traveling by sea has been one of the best ways to see the world. A mentor of mine has been stationed in Japan for the last two years and has been to a large majority of the countries in Asia. Others are stationed in Europe and some are stationed in the Middle East. A lot of work goes into getting to those places because it's not a vacation by any means, it's your job, but it's so worth it.
 
Impressive list. My son just got his appointment. So when you travel to these places you travel by sea? You are then stationed there for several months? Once stationed, are you back at port every night? Just trying to get a feel for it all.
 
The quick answer is it depends on the circumstance. To go into more detail, the majority of places on my list were port calls during patrol periods when I was stationed on a cutter. These are typically 2-3 day visits where you may or may not have to spend a day on the ship due to normal duty standing, fueling, logistics, maintenance, etc. Port calls are great because they give the crew a break from the patrol slog, allow for more innovative connections to back home (FaceTime, Skype, WiFi, Texting, etc.), and give you some cool adventure opportunities (Waterfall Rappelling in Costa Rica for example). Other trips have been for temporary duty via plane, my visit to Italy was about a week, both my Italy and Canada trips were done while at the CG Academy as well the Ireland/England/Germany tour on the Barque Eagle.

That being said, the CG does have plenty of international opportunities, including permanent stations from the Pacific Islands to Far East Asia, to Europe, etc. These tours are typically at a higher rank, usually Lieutenant Commander (O-4) and above with a few Lieutenant (O-3) billets sprinkled in. There are Coast Guard Cutters and land units permanently stationed in the U.S. territories of Guam and Puerto Rico where yes, you are there for anywhere from 2-4 years. That being said, "back at port" every night is rare for any ship...particularly ones that officers are stationed aboard. The smaller cutters (think 87, 110, and 154 foot vessels) can operate from a few days out to 1-2 weeks before they pull in to a port (and not always their homeport) while larger cutters can be away from land from one to a couple of months depending on logistics and fuel. On a 270 foot cutter, the longest I was away from land was 32ish days.

All that aside, I've had some incredible opportunities in the CG in just four years. Your DS will undoubtedly have the same as long as he continues to put the work in. Congrats to him on earning his appointment!
 
My traveling was mostly in my role as the Coast Guard’s liaison with a DOD program. Most of the time we were flying on Air Force planes.

On a ship I went to Haiti, the Bahamas and Gitmo.... mostly engaged in alien migrant interdiction operations.
 
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