My son is active duty USCG and now his 18 year old wife is planning to go Coast Guard Reserves. They have a 7 month old baby girl and the recruiter assures them that the USCG will consider that when assigning her and "exceptions" are made for married couples with children. She wants to go MST, if that makes a difference. She has yet to sign and I am concerned that the recruiter is telling her whatever she wants to hear. I know in the "other branches" reservists are the workhorses, so to speak and I worry she will be spending a lot more time away than she anticipates. Anybody have any input? I don't want to discourage her yet I want to be sure she has all her facts straight before she signs

Recruiting in the CG is not like the other branches more people try to join the CG then the CG can actually recruit so the recruiter probably isn't trying to meet a certain "quota". A new fiscal year has also just started so I am sure the recruiter is not worried about "quota".
Let me see here.. This may not be 100 positive but she will have to go to boot camp for 8 weeks like your son and then MST school when a slot is open is 5weeks? That is atleast 13 weeks she will be away but may not all be at once. Now seeing as she will go reservist she should be stationed closest to home which should obviously be your sons active duty station. The only part of your sons situation here is the 7month old is there anyone around to take care of the child while your son is at work or on duty? Reservists usualy work 1 weekend a month or 2 weekdays a month. 2weeks in a summer or when they choose but I believe that is at discretion of her chain of command so can't help you there. Let me know if you need any other help may also want to try the recruiter forums.

Something to keep in mind, MST locations are not at every CG unit. While your son is stationed and living in one area, if your DIL goes MST, she may have a pretty far commute to her weekend duty.

Best of luck,

Don

quote:

Originally posted by Raiderfootball:
... Let me know if you need any other help may also want to try the recruiter forums.

Best piece of advice in the post. Try the Recruiter's Desk forum. CPO Kalbach does a great job of answering recruiting questions, and he's an authentic USCG recruiter.

Least I got something right -.-.... lol

How do I get to the Recruiter forums? And thanks for the info...you were all a big help!

Click Coast Guard Discussions Recruiters Desk and ask on that forum.

Your kids got 100% BAD ADVICE. It is very, very clearly written that dual military couples must have plans in place to account for world wide, simultanious deployments. There are NO SPECIAL considerations given to dual military couples. Your son can read the PERSMAN to find the details.

before his wife gets to the one weekend each month and two weeks of active duty there is 8 weeks of bootcamp, and 8-12 weeks of "A" school.

Ditto that. If she's going in with the expectation that she can count on special accomodations or excusals being made everytime she has a childcare conflict for drills, and especially for mobilizations, she's going to be disappointed. While field commands will try to make some room for member needs, nobody is going to be happy when service needs trump convenience. Service is a serious committment and perhaps she may well find a dependable support plan when duty calls, but you're doing the right thing to get additional information.

If the recruiter has identified a drill location with an open billet for an SN or junior MST, I recommend arranging a site visit and have your DIL discuss her practical concerns directly with the command and other assigned reservists. It would also give her a chance to see what she would actually be doing.

It pays to do your homework.

KC

quote:

Originally posted by rcurp:
My son is active duty USCG and now his 18 year old wife is planning to go Coast Guard Reserves. They have a 7 month old baby girl and the recruiter assures them that the USCG will consider that when assigning her and "exceptions" are made for married couples with children. She wants to go MST, if that makes a difference. She has yet to sign and I am concerned that the recruiter is telling her whatever she wants to hear. I know in the "other branches" reservists are the workhorses, so to speak and I worry she will be spending a lot more time away than she anticipates. Anybody have any input? I don't want to discourage her yet I want to be sure she has all her facts straight before she signs

Once question. Why does she want to join the service (CG or anything).

She ultimately has an interest in law enforcement and feels this experience would give her some credibility with local agencies because of her age. ?? Not sure of other reasons other than that. I doubt it's for the big bucks they pay

Bad idea ... if she has an interest in local law enforcement, let her apply her time in local community law enforcement education opportunities, local volunteer work thru the police or sheriff's office and police reserve positions. She will get a lot farther with "face time" with the local cops, than any Coast Guard affiliation.

No disrespect intended to you with the following, rcurp, but having been part of it myself once upon a time in my now distant past, well, the Coast Guard does not have "Reserves". The correct nomenclature is, "U.S. Coast Guard Reserve". Now if you were speaking of money that the Coast Guard might have in its bank accounts, then using the term, "Coast Guard reserves", might likely be a correct grouping of words, that is if there was any money in its accounts, which wouldn't be that likely, especially as the Coast Guard gets meager crumbs of cash when compared to what its DoD bretheren get doled to them annually by Congress. As for those of the Coast Guard Reserve itself, referencing those of the Reserve singularly would be to call them a Reservist, and pleurally would to be to call them Reservists. Again, not trying at all to wax disrespectfully here, but thought you might like to know the correct nomenclature to use if and when you speak of the Coast Guard Reserve anytime in the future.

A fellow with meager reserves himself sends...

Have you nothing better to do with your time than to write run-on sentences? Your input is of no value in obtaining a reasonable answer to a legitimate question. No offense taken, by the way.

quote:

Originally posted by SociallyAutistic:
Bad idea ... if she has an interest in local law enforcement, let her apply her time in local community law enforcement education opportunities, local volunteer work thru the police or sheriff's office and police reserve positions. She will get a lot farther with "face time" with the local cops, than any Coast Guard affiliation.

I doubt she will change her mind, thus, my need for more information. Thanks.

rcurp: welcome to the forums. Please try not to be critical of the writing styles of the others around here and try to read the message given by other posters. After reading the buse's comment I can see how you would have a problem with the long sentences, etc, but I do believe in a round about way, with some humor (we are not a glum lot around here) he was saying they are called the U. S. Coast Guard Reserve; a bit stodgy but I can see his humor - As a retired Coastie, who did some Maritime Law Enforcement during my career, and now a Federal Law Enforcement Officer, if your daughter-in-law is interested in a LE Career I assure you she will be much better off with at least an Associates Degree in Criminal Justice; Bachelors would be much more valuable. With a criminal justice degree she could apply for and become a "covered" Federal LEO with the FBI, DOJ, CBP, ATF, etc and in a few short years be making a fist full more money then the Coast Guard Reserve. In two years my base pay jumped from $38K to $58K a year (GS7 to GS11 with a one year stop at GS9). With a shift premium of 20% for midnights that could be $69400 and a $30000 max overtime cap - $100,000 a year would be possible. You'd need 11 hours of overtime a week in one year to do it...

Something that really needs to be considered though, is she is 18, with a child - without making any judgements, I think she is too young to have the additional pressures of military life, raising a child, and putting up with the pressures of being a military wife. Your son, grandchild, and daughter-in-law would be a lot better off if she were to mature as a mother first...parenting is hard enough to do as a couple; let alone when you son has the duty (or is underway for 5 weeks) its 3 am, baby has a fever of 104.5F and she's alone with the baby...just my two pennies worth...

I completely agree...but how do you convince an 18 year old that there are other options? Thanks for the input.

Maybe have her sit down and map out exactly how this is going to work. Yes, the USCG will consider her location when making assignments ... but the Reserve program has become very billet-driven ... and if there is not a billet for an MST in the area where she and her husband are located, she could face long travel distances (uncompensated) to drill. I have a friend who lives in Denver and drills in San Francisco. How will they afford those travel costs? Who will provide child care if her husband also draws weekend duty? Who cares for the child during her annual 2-week training ... or an emergency call-up? Not to discourage an enthusiastic recruit ... but maybe this just isn't the best time in her life to make this kind of commitment.