Expert: Eric Ernst - 9/30/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello sir, my question is will I be able to enter the coast guard if I have more than 5 speeding tickets? Also I Developed a small case of short term asthma from inhaling fire proofing during a summer job, which has corrected itself. I wish to be a rescue swimmer. I'm a college student who plays college soccer. I also feel like my morals are what the Coast Guard looks for. I consider my self a dying breed of gentlemen and hope that will be enough to get into the Coast Guard with speeding tickets.
Thank you for you're time

Nicholas

ANSWER: Hello Nicholas,
Thank You for wanting to join the best service the military has to offer. I'm going to cut straight to the chase. First with the medical portion. When you go to MEPS the medical portion of everything they are going to do a complete medical history on you. Any documentation that you have of the Asthma you will need to bring with you. Asthma is a no go. As for being a rescue swimmer the flight physical is even harder. They will go more in depth on your medical situations. As aviation we all need a flight physical and believe me they will find out if there is anything wrong. As for the speeding tickets, how long ago were they and how close in conjunction were they?
I hope that I answered some of your questions please let me know about the speeding tickets.
Thank You,
Eric

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: The speeding tickets were all this year. I moved to a college town. I'm a small town guy where I'm use to 3-4 officers working for the whole town so I've been hit hard by the speed traps. I know asthema is a no go, but under the circumstances and that I'm a collegiate athlete that goes through rigerous activety on a daily basis would they allow me in if my body is capable. And the asthema was only a recent thing?

Thank you

Nicholas

Answer
Nicholas,
Ok I did a little research on this with the Asthma, it appears you may be able to get a waiver. The odds are pretty slim though, so don't get your hopes to high. You will need to bring every piece of medical documentation with you though pertaining to it. As for the speeding tickets you may have a bigger problem. That's a lot of speeding tickets in 1 year. The question now is do you still have your license? They are going to take a good look at the speeding tickets. The Coast Guard goes for the best, any fowl up can basically DQ you from service and 5 tickets in one year is a lot. They look into what the call the Moral aspect and how well you are following the rules. Because the military will do a background check on you and as a rescue swimmer you will need a secret clearance. Your best bet at this point is to contact a recruiter and if I were you I would be on the phone with them tommorow. October 1st is the beginning of the fiscal year for the military and that is when they get the amount of people they are allowed to recruit for the year.
Hope this information helps you a little bit.
Eric