<p>I was just wondering, what is a typical first assignment like in the Coast Guard?</p>
<p>The overwhelming majority of new ensigns are assigned to a high-endurance cutter for two years. They perform the duties of a junior officer and basically learn the basics of officership and leadership. They are exposed to all the various departments on the cutter and given more responsibility as they go along.</p>
<p>A number of grads go directly to flight training but that is very competitive. Finally a small number have shore-based assignments depending on the needs of the Coast Guard.</p>
<p>After the two-year initial stretch many go to graduate school while some are given command of 87-ft cutters(again a competitive berth).</p>
<p>Boss - when assigned to cutters, does the crew live on the cutter full-time or come back to port? ( daily, weekly,monthly?)</p>
<p>Ohiomom, I found a great Cutter web site that shows alittle of what life is like aboard a Cutter. Be sure to see the photo album link & the newsletter. I just found this site the other day & enjoyed seeing what our great CG guys & gals do. Hope you enjoy the site as much as I did!</p>
<p>Jamzmom- thanks alot for the link. </p>
<p>off-topic -- Where in SC do you live?</p>
<p>JM is looking at her ds future ship...ha ha</p>
<p>OM when in port they usually live in apartments or base housing. When in port there is usually a skeleton crew on board overnights with others standing watches.</p>
<p>Yep Boss. So tell your kid hands off this one. I want it for my kid. :D </p>
<p>OM, we live about as far east in the state as one can go but its still just a few hours from Charleston & the coast. Boss thinks he's funny so let me explain the ha ha he's getting. I found the Cutter website while trying to find a photo of my USMMA kid's ship he'll be going out on in March. He'll be on the USNS Laramie & its pictured along side of this cutter on the website. Son wants to go Coast Guard when he graduates from USMMA hence my comment about Boss keeping his kid away from "my" Midget. I hand picked this Cutter for MY kid! :)</p>
<p>It seems I made a small boo boo. I live WEST not east. Its not easy being me. I have to think harder than most people. :D Ya'll don't realize how many "blonde" jokes I get from my supposed good friends.</p>
<p>Ahh, OK, I was trying to figure out how far east you were but still a few hours from the coast.
We visit Charleston often and love that area, so I was just wondering. :-)</p>
<p>WAIT JUST A MINUTE . . . .
After all this "go navy" blather . . .
All this "navy is wonderful" blah, blah, blah. . .
and NOW you are talking about the Coast Guard in glowing terms?
I think JM is like an ol' girlfriend [and I do mean OLD] who thinks her latest suitor is the cat's meow. [How is that for dating me.]
I wondered where you had been and now I know you've been slinking around the Coast Guard thread with Boss! Imagine the indiginity.</p>
<p>Of course, now, I have to refer my next son to that picture. [Guess I have another son who thinks his dad is going nuts over this stuff.]</p>
<p>And what kind of name is "midgett" for a ship? Somebody explain THAT to me.</p>
<p>USCGC MIDGETT is the twelfth and last of the Coast Guard's fleet of 378 foot High Endurance Cutters. She is the third in her class (HERO) to be named for outstanding Coast Guardsmen. Her namesake, the late Chief Warrant Officer John Allen MIDGETT, Jr. was born in 1876 in Rodanthe, North Carolina and served for nearly forty years with the U.S. Lifesaving Service and the Coast Guard. He was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal for his heroic rescue of 36 crewmen from the torpedoed British tanker MIRLO in 1918. Bos'n Midgett and his lifeboat crew rescued the entire crew, despite rough seas and flames from the tankers cargo of refined oil and gasoline. J.A. Midgett, Jr. was also one of seven of Midgett family members to have been awarded the nations highest award for saving a life - the Gold Lifesaving Medal. More than 150 living members of the Midgett family have made the Coast Guard a career, including more than thirty still on active duty.</p>
<p>Now hold on a second...I'm all GO NAVY....AND GO COAST GUARD too LOL. Have a boy active duty Navy and one who's going to USMMA and wants to be in the Coast Guard!! so......us moms can have split personalities!</p>
<p>Bill,</p>
<p>You have a better chance of getting what you want from Kings Point than you do at each respective Service Academy!!! KP is the best kept secret!! JM and Suz know that-keep an eye on them they figure stuff out fast...</p>