Originally posted by maxx_power76:
Also unlike the Navy you don't sit on a boat for 6 months. Thats why I didn't join.



Thats a lie and a half. I'm in the coast guard. I'll send you some PMs if you want. I've had a few friends who've been stationed overseas for more than six months (not by much) and on boats WAYYYYY smaller than an aircraft carrier. It was a 270ft boat in case you're wondering.

We do everything he said. Flight engineer yea, other stuff too. Small boats is where it's at though. Nothing more fun than hauling ass on the water in 8-10 foot seas in a boat that is unsinkable to go out and save somebody's life.

You can do law inforcement stuff too. Boardings on other vessels and fisheries. Oh yea... if we want we can become customs too. That means we can board your boat, tear is apart and tell you that you have 24 hours to move it away. It has its ups and downs... depends on what you want.

You can get stationed overseas too. During times of war we send our bigger boats over seas. We had 4 110ft boats patrolling the middle east waters and a few 180ft buoy tenders doing Aids to Navigation over there. It's all good but you'll probably want to know more about it.

It is very true that we are a very small service. I think right now we have about 38,000 active duty and 8,000 reserve personnel. the new york city police department has more people. And we patrol the U.S. coastline as well as some lakes (lake tahoe). You can get stationed on a variety of boats. Black hull boats are AtoN boats. White hull boats are more into Law Inforcement, Drug Interdiction, and Search and Rescue.

I'll tell you a little about my unit.

I'm at a small boat station in southern maryland. We have about 20 active duty personnel here. We stand duty either 48 hours in a row or 72 hours in a row. No we do not work all of that but it you're on duty then your normal working hours are from 0800 to 1600 (4pm). We get free food (sorta, ask me and I'll tell you more) and we get paid more for living off the base. We have two small boats. A 41ft utility boat used for various missions and a 23ft SAFE boat.

Neither of those boats are unsinkable but you'll have a hell of a time with the 23ft SAFE boat.

I'm going to end this post here after informing everyone of CEG central about my service. Sorry for the long post but I hope it answers just about everyone's questions concerning the Coast Guard.

Some things you may hear are myth and some maybe true. PM me and I'll try and get back to you.

One last thing. In this service there is such a thing as a Non_rate. You do not want to be this. If you enlist then make sure you get a guaranteed "A" School. Good luck.

95 Mystique GS Zetec ATX: Dead - Dec 5th, 2003 94 Accord LX 2.2L MTX Non-Vtec. Few bolt ons. 02 Escape XLT 3.0 V6 ATX. This thing has the CD4E in it?! What the hell was ford thinking?