by Timothy Aines

Created on: January 07, 2009   Last Updated: March 16, 2012

So you want to be a Coast Guardsman?

Consider this your very unofficial Underground User Manual to the United States Coast Guard.

Now, don't expect to hear a lot of what I'm about to tell you down at the local recruiting office. I also want to make it clear up front that the advice and opinions here are most definitely not that of the real U.S. Coast Guard.

Lastly, I must explain a bit about the various Coast Guard missions and their pertinence to your career, so vow to stay with me an extra minute or two, ok?

So, let's begin.

The Coast Guard is one of the greatest and most flexible sea services ever created. It is a great place to have a tremendously successful and rewarding career. It is staffed by dedicated, hard working people who consistently achieve miracles everyday.

Like all organizations it has its strengths and weaknesses however, and these may have a direct bearing on your success and happiness, so you should understand these institutional quirks before you come in.

The first thing you should know is that within the Service, people who work in this branch of the armed forces call each other "Coasties." It's a happy, friendly and approachable name. However if you roll your eyes thinking that this is a really gay name for a supposedly macho bunch of people in the armed forces, then you should probably move along and check out the Marines, Army Rangers, or Navy SEALS. Truly, this is probably a fairly accurate early indicator of how well you may fit in.

The United States Coast Guard is one of the most unusual branches of the armed forces. It is the nation's premier law enforcement and search and rescue organization at sea. It differs from other military branches of the armed forces because all members above the rank of E-4 in the Coast Guard have technical Federal arrest authority while in the performance of their official duties. This law enforcement and arrest authority does not exist with rank and file members of the other services, and so this makes Coast Guard culture more hesitant, regulated and police-like than war-like. The Coast Guard is frequently the forgotten son in the lineup of more famous American military muscle which includes the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marines. Originating from a merger of the old Revenue Cutter Service and the Lighthouse Service in 1915, the Coast Guard has accrued more missions and assignments than all other branches of the armed forces. It does this with a worldwide active duty force that is only a

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