Hello, I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but I don't see it anywhere in the ET forum.
Anyway, I am strongly considering going ET, and I was wondering what life is actually like at an ESD or commsta. Is it a 24-hour operation, are there 12-hour watches? Do you come in and do work at the ESD and then get dispatched elsewhere when something breaks?
Also, how likely is it to get LORAN duty if it never appears on your eresume?
I was at ESD Key West and it was pretty awesome. We had a split shift, most of the guys worked from 7:30 to 1:30, then myself and 1 or 2 others came in at 12:30 and worked till 6:30. I was able to attend alot of college classes this way, i was basically a full time student while working in the Coast Guard. But don't get to excited about working afternoon hours, most supervisors are too stupid to realize how much more work can get done with split shifts. I had a cool supervisor that understood this. And probably most of the people that will read this will disagree with me too. You will probably never see this again until I get my own ESD. I never been to a Comm Sta so I don't have any advice for you on that. I would definately try ot get to the East Coast though, I'm on the West Coast now and things run really *****ed up out here. There are too many civilian contractors so shore side ETs hardly ever get to do ET work. Also I never been to Loran and I hope to keep it that way. If I were you I would take a cutter out of A-school first, then go to a land billet. Unless you can go to a land billet you really want. Hope this helps.
124....., Don't worry so much about not getting a boat right away, you can learn just as much at at COMMSTA or ESD/ESU. Depending on where you go you can always go TAD to a cutter to get a different learning experience. I am currently at a COMMSTA and it's pretty laid back, however there is work to do. You must break-in and qualify to become duty ET, then depending on which you go to, you'll have a 1 in (whatever) duty schedule. If you have transportation and a telephone number to be reached during off hours you can leave the premises when your on duty, but if not you'll have to stay at the COMMSTA until you're relieved the next day. Overall, I've enjoyed my experience at the COMMSTA - most are pretty small commands to you get to know everyone and you can make some really good friends along the way. Some commands will even allow you to go to "C" schools depending on your career intentions/needs of the service (command) - which is always nice. Good Luck!
it's just sucks right now though cause it's almost impossible to get a boat out of school though....I think 1 since this summer.
Umm... Negative... I know for a fact (I was at 'A' School April-November '07) that there was more than one boat on the lists since this summer... Of the classes I know of, the average was two boats per class... Most of the classes before mine had MK92 billets... The ones that didn't had boats... I had a small class (10 people) so we only had one boat and I grabbed it as the #2 pick...
124....., Don't worry so much about not getting a boat right away, you can learn just as much at at COMMSTA or ESD/ESU. Depending on where you go you can always go TAD to a cutter to get a different learning experience.
It's not so much about getting a different learning experience as it is getting the one year of sea time (rated or non-rated) required to make E-6 and the two years (rated) required for E-7... I strongly recommend that everyone try as hard as they can in 'A' School to get a higher place on the pick list to get a boat... It's not too uncommon for those that go straight to a land unit to get them back to back... There are a lot of ET2's out there that can't advance because they don't have the sea time to make ET1 and there's just not enough ET2 afloat billets for all of them... I mean, unless you go to a restricted/isolated LORSTA (priority 1) you'll come off your first land unit as a priority 4 (OCONUS Ashore) and priority 5 (CONUS Ashore)... There's only one land billet out of 'A' School I advise and that's a restricted/isolated LORSTA... Then after 12 months you get a top pick of where you want to go... Behind only the guys in the sandbox supporting our units over there... It's just something to think about...
I strongly recommend you make every effort to get underway. Personally, I have been on a Cutter, LORSTA, ELC and currently at an ESD. There are so many advantages for a young Coastie to get underway. First and foremost you get your sea time out of the way early for E6 advancement. Second you learn more. There is absolutely no way you learn more about being an ET sitting at an ESD instead of using and working on gear everyday onboard a Cutter. Finally you form friendships onboard Cutters that are tighter than anywhere else. I trusted my shipmates onboard the Cutter with my life... I haven't been able to say that at any other unit.
