My name is Erik Briggs and I'm considering joining the Coast Guard and trying to become an AST and I was wondering if as an AST you would have enough time off duty to have a second job in order to get some extra cash. I have 4 years of college prepaid for and I was considering taking paramedics classes and doing that on the side if it was allowable. Also what are the chances of being able, as you get older, to transfer from jumping out of the helo to flying it? I know that an AST is not a career I would be able to maintain as I got older and I want to look at my future too. Thanks in advance for your answers.

quote:

Originally posted by briggsey09:
My name is Erik Briggs and I'm considering joining the Coast Guard and trying to become an AST and I was wondering if as an AST you would have enough time off duty to have a second job in order to get some extra cash. I have 4 years of college prepaid for and I was considering taking paramedics classes and doing that on the side if it was allowable. Also what are the chances of being able, as you get older, to transfer from jumping out of the helo to flying it? I know that an AST is not a career I would be able to maintain as I got older and I want to look at my future too. Thanks in advance for your answers.

Where you get stationed as an AST will greatly depend on how much time you have to do things like a second job or School. Some commands have the ability to accomdate, some do not. Some you can but you will be a busy man! Some places you will be able to do it easily.

As for flying, a lot of AST's have become pilots. It's based on:

1. Are you qualified, medically, and academically.

2. Does the Coast Guard need pilots.

3. And how stiff is you competetion.

But you know thier are some older Swimmers out thier still doing the job.

My advice to you is. If those are your plans. Great! Try to make them happen, But if the stars should not align is thier some other route would not mind taking.

Thier is a chance that you could become an AST go to a busy unit and not have time for school. Or you could apply for OCS and not get selected. And if you get selected to be an officer (you have to be an officer to be a pilot, you have to be enlisted to be an AST) You may not get selected for flight school.

But your in luck. Thier are tons of cool career paths in the Coast Guard. Even after being an AST.

I have AST's who are able to pursue education and stand duty and keep up with the shop work. It's a challenge but they do it because they realize that the job will take a toll on them if they pursue it for 20 years. I know of a few AST's who have opted to go CWO because the AST job is literally hurting too much and the retirement option was still a few years off for them. One thing about the current AST rate set-up in aviation that really, really irritates me is that we rely on the AST Shop Chief to stand RS duty. If the ASTC is taken out of the rotation at almost any air station, duty-standing schedules will suffer. Few, if any, other rates rely so heavily on a CPO to fill out a duty-standing SAR schedule.

Dave, I am not following you? What Duty should the chief Stand? Why is this a problem?

I know on my Boat when I was non-rate. All the chiefs stood duty. Hell The Seniors stood duty.

If the AST chief would not be Standing SAR duty. he would then be a watch captain? What's the difference for SAR and some other job?

I know being an AST can be demanding on the body. But most swimmers will be at there 20 mark around 38-42 years of age. Now if the joined later than that. That's the cost of jumping in the game lat. In a 20 year career about 17 of those years will be standing duty (RS). Now all that adding up I do not think it's crazy to ask a 40 year old man with 17 years under his belt to hang it up. I also do not think the CG is not crazy for doing it sooner. I think that's reasonable.

There are a lot of athletes in High impact sports that accoplish the samething.

And I am not sure how much RS Duty Chiefs are actually standing around the guard anywho!

I know a few airsta's that if the chief stopped standing duty...I do not think anyone would notice.

But hey. I like the idea of more AST billets!

I'm one of the old farts who've been around since before the rescue swimmers arrived on scene. Yes, CPO's stand duty all over the place but are they regularly scheduled for and do they stand SAR-response duty involving flight? I've yet to see an AMTC or AETC standing 4-section or 3-shift SAR-response duty on a routine/recurring basis. In fact, a large number of AMTC/AETC's step-down from FM to BA or just quit flying. How may ASTC's are given that option? If an AMTC or AETC is gone from the Shop for an extended period, it seldom affects the SAR duty-standing response capability of the unit. If my ASTC is gone for more than a week then the AST Shop must schedule and compensate accordingly for duty SAR response. I've seen his absence affect LV opportunities for his subordinates.
If one of my AMTC's or AETC's departs for a month, there's no effect on my units' ready Flight Mech SAR response capability. My AMTC/AETC's stand OOD duty a maximum of 3 days per month -- such duty does not compare to the ASTC's requirement for SAR-response/flight duty-standing.
I make no apology for wanting my ASTC to be afforded the same options as my AMTC/AETC's. I've got 24yrs TIS and fully appreciate the perks that have come my way as a member of the Chiefs Mess. Should you choose to likewise make a career of this outfit as I have, I predict you'll feel the same.

Dave come on man. We do not have any room to complain. Comparing us to the Mechs and Tweets and Even to imply that we are some how deprived is like slapping a mech and tweet in the face right after they just got done with a 200 hour on the plane.

But complaining about anything in our job as an AST is like being a rich, retired buisness man, who is sipping tropical fruit and vodka from a glass with little umbrellas in them on a beach in the sunshine complaining about the sad state of the nation.

I do not know how much duty every ASTC is standing. But I do not think I would notice if my chief was not standing duty. Where I was an Airman the chief was not really taking that many days either.

I am sure there are some high OPTEMPO Air Sta's that need the chief in the rotation more. But What's the old saying....Choose your rate, Choose your fate? I do not know about you, But the mechs and tweets can have thier OOD duty. This job is the cats meow.

As for the chief being absent and lv being affected. Again, I will take that risk to be an AST.

a little off topic, but I had to jump in.

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Now all that adding up I do not think it's crazy to ask a 40 year old man with 17 years under his belt to hang it up.

You only have to look as far as the last two CG Foundation awards to see just how much age matters in this job. Both big-water multiple-victim rescues pulled off by men over 40 with over 17 years of service.

Personally, I have always thought about who in my shop I would want to come get me and my family if we needed rescue. The guy in the best shape never made the list...it was always the one I trusted most, and that person (by the way) was always over (often well over) 35.

This job is about being smart. It is NOT about being an athelete. The old dog should be allowed to hang it up. But, if he is passing all his mins, the CG should never ask him too. Doing so just might lose you the best RS in the shop.

Respectfully,

MV

That's it in a nutshell. Being allowed to hang it up in the same way your peers do.