Expert: James Bell - 12/17/2009

Question
OK, does the Coast Guard have basic training I would have to go through if I wanted to be a nurse in the Coast Guard? My question last time was of that tone because I was unsure and scared of boot camp. Buuut...the idea of being a nurse or medic in the Coast Guard intrigues me. Can they pay for college and I, go to basic training? or is that only the other military branches?

Answer
Danielle -

Thank you for writing again.  My previous response wasn't to insult or belittle you, just to educate you.  Basic Training in any branch can be scary, but it is a necessary evil.  Having never been in the Coast Guard, I can't venture what it is like, but ALL of the Armed Forces require basic training of some sort.  I have a friend who is in the Coast Guard and we have shared stories about our basic experiences.

Although it may be scary, don't make it out to be more than it is.  If you watch movies that focus on it (Private Benjamin, Full Metal Jacket, even Stripes), you would think that, since half of the movie covers just Basic, it is a huge thing.  In reality, it only SEEMS large simply because it forms your first military memories.  For a standard 4-year enlistment (which is 208 weeks), the six weeks you are in Basic is not even 3% of your total military service.  If you serve 24 years, as I did, the time in Basic Training drops to a mere 0.5%.

Looking back on Basic, even though the situations I was put through would be considered stressful, 90% of the training is psychological ... do you have what it takes to be in the military?  The goal is to identify (and correct -- or weed out) those who may not be able to handle the stresses of military duty.  If you are looking at becoming a nurse, I can see much more stressful things in your future.  If you were a military nurse, serving in the Middle East, and a soldier came in with multiple shrapnel wounds, missing a leg and half his face, bleeding profusely from every wound, I think that would be substantially more stressful than having a T. I. yell at you for not marching correctly.

The military does have the Montgomery G. I. Bill, various education and commissioning programs, so I would say the possibility of getting the military to foot some or most of your college funding is pretty good.  But, realize that, in exchange for that training and education, you will accrue an Active Duty Service Commitment ... time served on active duty that is AT LEAST 1.5 times what they give you.  Meaning, if you go to school for a year, you own them a year and a half of service in return.  For those things, you would need to talk to a recruiter, as I have no experience on using those programs.  The newer programs cover the last year to a year and a half of college to get your degree, but you would need to attend school while on active duty to get the first two and a half to three years completed.  It's not a fast process.  Short of getting a military scholarship, I don't know of any shortcuts.

I can tell you one story of a young lady I served with on my last deployment prior to retirement.  Katie was 18, on her first deployment and newly qualified on the KC-10 aerial tanker as a Boom Operator.  Her goal was to attend college while on active duty to get her teaching degree.  On one of her earlier missions, she had a pair of F-16's come up for an unscheduled refueling.  The wingman was low on gas.  He was impatient to get fuel but she had her preflight checks to do before allowing him to connect for refueling.  This was all being done at 25,000 feet, over Iraq, at 350 miles an hour.  It took all of two minutes for her to complete her checks and signaled the fighter to move in for contact.  Just five feet from the boom, the fighter hesitated, then began to back out, descending to the bottom of the refueling zone.  In a few seconds he disappeared from sight.  The lead fighter rolled over and dove straight down, calling out MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY as he tried to keep his wingman in sight.  The fighter had run out of gas.  A few minutes later he crashed in the desert.  The pilot ejected and was recovered in less than an hour by Search and Rescue forces.  At first, she blamed herself for not getting her preflight checks done quickly enough.  To say it shook her up was an understatement.

They were ordered to return to base pending an investigation.  That night, the pilot who ejected personally called her from his base and apologized to her.  He was not just low on gas, he was on fumes.  He wanted to get connected to the tanker to get gas before he ran out.  He didn't want to tell his flight leader how low he was.  He flamed out his engine just five feet from the boom.  He called to tell her she had done nothing wrong, and that the blame for the loss of a million dollar aircraft was his alone.

She was an emotional wreck for a couple of days, thinking about the incident.  Anyone would have been, man or woman.  She looked right into his face as he ran out of gas and disappeared.  But, she went on to finish the deployment, flying over a dozen combat refueling missions over enemy territory.  That was just the first of many deployments in her continuing career.  She said the incident gave her strength of character that she never thought she would have had just two years prior when she was in high school.

I bring this story up because I was her first sergeant, and was concerned for her mental wellbeing.  I laughed and said this was a lot different than Basic.  She smiled back, saying that when she went into the military, she was scared of all the unknown things that would happen in Basic Training.  After that experience, she said the stress of Basic didn't even register with any significant importance.

I hope this provides more information for you.  Again, a recruiter would be able to give you more details of the programs and incentives available to you.

Good luck, and write back if you have anymore questions.

Sincerely,
James Bell