US Coast Guard... Being all I can be.

[carebear]

Swim, swim, swim. I'm not a Coastie, but I looked into it one time, and you have to be a very good swimmer to pass their boot camp. Get comfortable with being underwater and keeping your head.

Swimming? I thought the Coasties never went out where it was so deep they couldn't wade back to shore.

I have to second Cos. The Coast Guard heads out into weather everyone else is running back into harbor to hide from. They do it for real, 24/7.

 

[wingnutx]

Swimming? I thought the Coasties never went out where it was so deep they couldn't wade back to shore.

Dang, beat me to it. "You have to be 6 feet tall to join the CG, so you can walk to shore if your ship sinks..."

 

[dm1333]

Thain, you can choose whatever rate you want

As long as you are qualified for that job and are willing to wait for orders to school no one will "force" you into a different rate. The waiting list for schools tend to vary but GM generally has shorter waits. I didn't meet the 6 ft requirement Wingnutz but due to my movie star looks they let me in

 

[Old Dog]

Navy guy checking in, but all the respect in the world for the Coasties. Just make sure you aren't prone to seasickness. A lifetime ago, I spent a couple months working with a small CG LEO det doing drug ops ... I'm telling you what, I hated having to get off my nice big ship and get into one of those little bittie boats to go board another ship ... Many a time I puked my guts out by the time we got to whatever vessel we were gonna check out ... At least doing VBSS in the Persian Gulf, the seas were always a lot calmer ...

 

[Tokugawa]

I must admit my regard for the CG was shaken a bit when I showed up at the station to play guitar with a new friend and found out he drowned that day in a initiation rite in the surf-got the rescue line half hitched around his legs and they dragged him in till he drowned. And do not count on a non combat job- I shot once with a guy who thought that was an easy out from Vietnam- spent his time on a boat in the Mekong delta..
All this aside, as a former commercial fisherman, it was sure nice to know those guys were out there!

 

[1911Ron]

if you want to be in law enforcement you need to be an MK (motor killer) mechanic rating, they do most of the boardings when at a small boat station. I spent 3 yrs at Station San Diego as a boarding(law enforcement) officer lottsa long hours looking for lost boaters,druggies and the like, lotta fun tho.
For the record i'm over 6ft and we never went out of sight of land