Coast Guard Direct Commission Officer to Flight / OCS

[sc0utwright]

Hello,

Since Coasties do a terrible job of helping ourselves I went and wrote the Coast Guard Direct Commission Officer Reddit WIKI here. After my experience with the Air Force OTS process and the Facebook pages, I went and started a Coast Guard Officer Commissioning Programs Facebook page here. Are you interested in flying for the Coast Guard? Once you commission you can apply for flight school, there are two boards a year for non-academy grads. A few direct slots out of OCS and the Wilks Flight Initiative for CSPI. Otherwise gotta go to the Academy. If you are a prior trained military aviator, you can come in the Direct Commission Aviator Program. See the WIKI above or join the DCO FB Page where we have a dedicated DCA chat for prior service. The last thread that started here was from 2019, so I am posting for people who come looking for information about flying with the Coast Guard. I am currently much more active on Reddit here and in the FB group above. The DCO programs have cyber, medical, engineering, intel, prior trained military officer, lawyers, MARGRAD and DCSS routes. The Coast Guard is hiring and if you are considering applying now is the time.

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

There’s already a forum dedicated to this

Coast Guard DCA

Trying to breathe some fresh air here. Recent DCA selection here. No idea what I’ll be flying or where, or when for that matter. Is there anything anyone recommend I start studying? Also is DCO school like a ‘boot camp/OCS’ environment? I just went to DCO school in August. They did a major...

www.airwarriors.com

 

[sc0utwright]

There’s already a forum dedicated to this

Coast Guard DCA

Trying to breathe some fresh air here. Recent DCA selection here. No idea what I’ll be flying or where, or when for that matter. Is there anything anyone recommend I start studying? Also is DCO school like a ‘boot camp/OCS’ environment? I just went to DCO school in August. They did a major...

www.airwarriors.com

I commented there as well for the DCA's, but the Coast Guard has more than one route to flight than the DCA program so I started this one. I will see if I can adjust the title to remove DCA. Thank you for the link.

 

[FlyingGamecock]

Hello,

Since Coasties do a terrible job of helping ourselves I went and wrote the Coast Guard Direct Commission Officer Reddit WIKI here. After my experience with the Air Force OTS process and the Facebook pages, I went and started a Coast Guard Officer Commissioning Programs Facebook page here. Are you interested in flying for the Coast Guard? Once you commission you can apply for flight school, there are two boards a year for non-academy grads. A few direct slots out of OCS and the Wilks Flight Initiative for CSPI. Otherwise gotta go to the Academy. If you are a prior trained military aviator, you can come in the Direct Commission Aviator Program. See the WIKI above or join the DCO FB Page where we have a dedicated DCA chat for prior service. The last thread that started here was from 2019, so I am posting for people who come looking for information about flying with the Coast Guard. I am currently much more active on Reddit here and in the FB group above. The DCO programs have cyber, medical, engineering, intel, prior trained military officer, lawyers, MARGRAD and DCSS routes. The Coast Guard is hiring and if you are considering applying now is the time.

After commissioning as an officer in the Coast Guard, how likely is it for you to get picked up for flight school if you keep applying twice a year?

 

[sc0utwright]

After commissioning as an officer in the Coast Guard, how likely is it for you to get picked up for flight school if you keep applying twice a year?

The biggest thing is that you have to get to Pensacola before your 31st birthday, the Coast Guard has a permanent waiver with the Navy but you can't be any older. Once your commissioned the ATSB scores seem to matter less then your prefomance marks and narrative. You still have the pass the minimums (4, 5) but needing all 7s or 8s just to be competitive isn't as important as compared to applying with the Navy. Keep in mind, this is where roughly 40% of the pilots come from since you can't apply directly to the baord to be a pilot from the civilian world (5 boards a year/2 for non-academy officers). I will be applying for my first board at just over a year in the CG. Technically I could have applied as soon as I commissioned if my command was willing to proved an endorsement. I doubt any command would be willing to provide that recommend without having atleast some time to get to know you and your prefomance. So because the CG hires internally, if you have a strong package, even decent score and a record of strong performance I would say it is very likely you would get picked up.

 

[flyer4life2020]

The biggest thing is that you have to get to Pensacola before your 31st birthday, the Coast Guard has a permanent waiver with the Navy but you can't be any older. Once your commissioned the ATSB scores seem to matter less then your prefomance marks and narrative. You still have the pass the minimums (4, 5) but needing all 7s or 8s just to be competitive isn't as important as compared to applying with the Navy. Keep in mind, this is where roughly 40% of the pilots come from since you can't apply directly to the baord to be a pilot from the civilian world (5 boards a year/2 for non-academy officers). I will be applying for my first board at just over a year in the CG. Technically I could have applied as soon as I commissioned if my command was willing to proved an endorsement. I doubt any command would be willing to provide that recommend without having atleast some time to get to know you and your prefomance. So because the CG hires internally, if you have a strong package, even decent score and a record of strong performance I would say it is very likely you would get picked up.

how difficult is it to get a pilot slot out of OCS, and what's the average number of slots per class? What are they looking for during that phase, considering they probably don't have lots of slots, and technically you aren't commissioned yet? Lastly, how long do you have to do a coastal job before being allowed to apply for flight school(on average)? I'm assuming you can apply maybe 2 - 3 times a year. what goes into a package during that time? any info would be helpful.

 

[sc0utwright]

how difficult is it to get a pilot slot out of OCS, and what's the average number of slots per class? What are they looking for during that phase, considering they probably don't have lots of slots, and technically you aren't commissioned yet? Lastly, how long do you have to do a coastal job before being allowed to apply for flight school(on average)? I'm assuming you can apply maybe 2 - 3 times a year. what goes into a package during that time? any info would be helpful.

Missed your original message. I can't speak to OCS since I came DCE and applied out of the fleet. I applied roughly a year after commissioning, there are 2 boards for DCO/OCS grads to apply to a year. 1 in Sept and 1 in December. The package is pretty simple, the biggest hurdle is the flight physical. There is a narrative, command endorsement and ASTB scores plus some other minor things like transcripts.