hi i was wondering if you know the requirments qualifications to be a rescue swimmer

www.gocoastguard.com

Toughest job both mentally and physically in the Coast Guard. Over 70% attrition rate. CPO Kalbach

Hello. I guess this is more or less to see if this would be a good job. I am 16. I would love to be a rescue swimmer. I know the drop out rate. I can swim a 500 in 6.45 minutes and can swim 25 in less than 30 seconds. The furthest i've ran so far is 3 miles though. I have not tried 5. So do you have any suggestions on how to prepare myself?

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Hello. I guess this is more or less to see if this would be a good job. I am 16. I would love to be a rescue swimmer. I know the drop out rate. I can swim a 500 in 6.45 minutes and can swim 25 in less than 30 seconds. The furthest i've ran so far is 3 miles though. I have not tried 5. So do you have any suggestions on how to prepare myself?

Are you going to be able to make the call on who lives and who dies? The physical preparation is the easiest. It's the mental preparation that is tough.

Do good in school, stay away from drugs, don't get into trouble with the law, listen to your parents, stay safe.

Would this be a good job? Sure. What isn't good about Saving Lives, Busting Drug Runners, Protecting the Environment, and Defending the Homeland. CPO Kalbach

As usual great advise from Chief Kal.

In addition, if you really want to be ahead in the game, get in contact with your local Red Cross or any where you can take some first aid classes. Rescue swimmers must also qualify as emergency medical technicians.

my buddy joined the coast guard to become a rescue swimmer. he ended up on a cutter somewhere in alaska i think doing something completely different, and he loves it. so even if you're worried about not making it into the rescue swimming program, the coast guard is pretty cool. i'm a marine and wish i'd joined the coast guard pretty much. so good luck.

Thank you all for your advice and inputs. I have been certified for first aid, cpr, and AED, and hope to get certified to be a water survival instructor next year. You do not need to know anything about helicopters though, do you? I sat in the cockpit of one, but thats it. Also, im afraid of heights. Will that be a major problem?

In addition to rescue swimming here are some of the other duties of an aviation survival technician:

ASTs inspect, service, maintain, troubleshoot, and repair cargo aerial delivery systems, drag parachute systems, aircraft oxygen systems, helicopter flotation systems, dewatering pumps, survival equipment for air-sea rescue kits and special purpose protective clothing. ASTs also store aviation ordnance and pyrotechnic devices.

You won't be expected to know all this ahead of time, they will teach you in school and during your qualification period.

As far as the fear of heights goes... well bear in mind you will be jumping out of helicopters into the ocean. Something to thing about.

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Originally posted by missnuss:
Hello. I guess this is more or less to see if this would be a good job. I am 16. I would love to be a rescue swimmer. I know the drop out rate. I can swim a 500 in 6.45 minutes and can swim 25 in less than 30 seconds. The furthest i've ran so far is 3 miles though. I have not tried 5. So do you have any suggestions on how to prepare myself?

To help with running, since you are only 16, I would suggest joining your high schools Cross Country running team if they have one. I have done cross country all throughout high school, and it kept me in the best shape, and had the most challenging practices (harder than lacrosse). You do not have to compete if you dont want to, just make sure you tell your coach that you would like to attend the practices, and run with the group. It will be a positive experience, and will get you into the best shape of your life.

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Also, im afraid of heights. Will that be a major problem?

I'll add to Retired's post. AST's also do cliff rescue, so they dangle from the Helicopter on a line to do the cliff rescue. Will fear of heights be a problem, YUP! CPO Kalbach

Well, i do not know how to end a disscusion, so... thanks for your advice everyone,

Wait! We're not done yet!

I guess we need to fine-tune things a little here. Everyone is afraid of heights to a certain extent, and I fall into that catagory. I once flew in a Coast Guard helicopter during an air/sea rescue demonstration at Cypress Gardens when I was at Tampa Recruiting. I stood at the door way and looked down. I thought about falling out of the helo and my stomach went into my mouth! Same thing standing atop a tall building. I so guess you just have to decide how bad that fear is. Like I'm illustating, everyone has it to some extent.

It would be a great idea to visit a Coast Guard Air Station and speak to the Petty Officers in the AST shop. They could give you much more insight. Also, you may join and get interested in something else. The Coast Guard tries to place people where they are best suited. And there are also shipboard rescue swimmers.

Best of luck to you.

Hello. I was looking at career options and I have looked into this before. I adore the water and do not want to be stuck behind a desk. The catch is that I would prefer not to live on Beans either. How much does a rescue swimmer make annually (approx.) and do you have any suggestions on other options?

There are too many variables to give you a bottom line dollars and cents amount of the annual pay of a rescue swimmer. You will always get basic pay. But you may also enlisted aircrew flight pay. If you have dependents you may receive a basic allowance for housing, depending on where you are stationed (if you are single) you may receive it too. You may receive an allowance for food. Pay grade and years of service make a difference as well. Here is a link to the basic pay chart.
http://www.military.com/military/benefits/0,15465,2008-...y-pay-charts,00.html

You won't be stuck behind a desk unless you get injured and put on light duty. But every job get has some paperwork, and you will see more and more as you advance in rank.

Hello, its me again. If you sign up to be a recue swimmer, then do not make it through training, are you still obligated to the coast guard? Or could I leave and go to college?

Thanks for coming back after 7 months to respond to your thread.

The answer is yes, you still have a commitment.

You need to understand that we in the military don't do our job for the money aspect of things. We are taken care of but by no means rich.

If you can't see yourself being in the military other than one job, then the military is not for you . You are either here to serve or your not. If you can't get beyond one career, then you should check the net for job agencies and searches.

Yep. You enlist for 4 years, and if you fail to graduate from a class "A" school (basic job speciality school), you still have the remainder of your enlistment to serve. In addition, you may have to extend your enlistment to get a school.

For instance, let's say you have to wait 2 1/2 years before your name comes up on the list to attend AST School. The Coast Guard is going to want to get a return on their investment of training you in that job, so you would probably have to extend for an addition 9 months of service.

There is no guarantee, but when the Coast Guard is overmanned they sometimes offer early outs. You can volunteer for this when it's announced, and it may or may not be approved.

After reading Yukon's post, I wanted to expound on some good points he's brought up.

One thing you will heard quite often in the Coast Guard is that our motto is "Semper Paratus", but that you must also be "Semper Gumby" to suceed. Plainly put, you've got to be flexable.

The Coast Guard calls them qualification codes, the Navy calls them NECs, and I believe the others call them secondary MOSs. These are other jobs you become trained in, in addition to your primary one. They are good to have. Some folks land jobs based on these secondary skills after they leave the service or retire.

As that old cadence goes, "you'll never get rich." But I have put people in who told me their income was actually going to increase once they enlisted, and these were folks enlisting in the E-1 to E-3 range. And when you figure in the benefits, you really can be better off than before you joined.

Woah, hold your horses. Im not in this for the money either. It's that I do not know what I want to do in life, and I just wanted to know what doors close as others open. I do not even know what other jobs their are in the other branches of the military, including the coast guard. If you guys have any suggestions of what jobs are out there that you could recommend me looking into, then I would be more than happy to hear them, but please dont bite my head off for asking a question.(I am not directing this comment to the retired cg recruiter)

OK, I'll go ahead and give you an overview, and tell you the path most folks (myself included) take when they enlist in the Coast Guard.

You will have classes on enlisted careers in the 4th week of recruit training. In addition to the literature you get from your recruiter and what you've read on the internet, you'll get more training and have a chance to sit down with a career counselor and ask questions.

Many people go in without a guaranteed school. AST is rarely on the list of schools that can be guaranteed going in. Recruits without a guaranteed school fill out an assignment data request form (usually referred to as a "dream sheet") at the end of week 4 of boot camp. You can request different areas and types of assignments. You get your orders for the first assignment in the middle of week 5. When you get to your first assignment, your unit will have an educational services officer (ESO). You will know what schools you can apply for based on your ASVAB scores. You will get a chance to see the different jobs (ratings) in action, and get a better idea what you might be the best for you. There is also training available besides your basic job speciality school. Your ESO can help you with that too. He or she can also help you with off duty education and and show you how you've gained college credits from your Coast Guard Training.

If you decide AST isn't for you, that's quite all right. You can change your mind and put in for a different school or even get into a rating by on the job training. Seeing the jobs in action will help you decide.

It's all there if you want it, you just have to go after it. Many folks, for whatever reason, don't. I would recommend getting as much training as possible.

Thank you for your help, I know you have been putting up with me for a while.

Not a problem MissNuss, that's why I post here, to answer questions if I can and to help out.

I'll gladly try and answer any other questions you may have. I also think that now it's time to take that next step to make an appointment and pay the recruiter a visit if you haven't already.

I wasn't biting, I was giving it to you with no fluff.

If you don't know what jobs are out there, the first stop would be to not type here, but do some searching on the net.

Now, I actually don't like that advice since there are hundreds of jobs in all the branches. The best bet is to invest your time and speak to a recruiter. Believe it or not, recruiters listen to your wants and needs and direct you accordingly.

If you don't want a desk job and you like being outdoors and water, this narrows your choices. But each branch will direct you differently, for instance, in the AF we have Pararescue and those guys spend lots of time in the water. Navy has seals, Army has dishwashers ! LOL Joke there .....anyway.

But again, the jobs you are talking about are not easy run of the mill jobs, the chance for washout are real. Having said that, you must be prepared for another career field. You stated you were thinking of college, what are you taking there ? Rescue Swimming ?

I have a feeling that in college you are taking a normal job and you will more than likely find similar jobs in the military.

Yukonn, actually the Regular Coast Guard only has 18 enlisted career fields so reading about them is probably less confusing as the other branches. I used to catch flack for this sometimes when I was recruiting ("Are these all the jobs you have?") But I used to explain that the Coast Guard tends to be less specialized than the others, and that each job has a boarder spectrum that in the other branches. On the upside, you usually get more training. On the downside, sometimes you are spread a little too thin. There were some things I did while I was in that seemed to have no rhyme or reason for me to be doing them. Semper Gumby though, I always did what I had to do.

When I asked most young men and women what interested them, they usually said "search and rescue" or "law enforcement." When they did mention specific jobs, it was almost always either Marine Science Technician, Aviation Survival Technician, Health Services Technician, or Boatswain's Mate. A Boatswain's Mate is the master seaman, they operate small boats and run the deck force on a ship. So because of the nature of their job, Boatswain's Mates do quite a bit of SAR and LE. Sometimes later on, I would hear from former recruits who got into admin jobs. But I never had a one come into my office and say "I want to be a desk jockey!"

You are correct about the high washout rate in the Aviation Survival Technician job. I don't know if it's as high as the Air Force PJs, but I think it's more than half.

Yep, its me again. Its been two years and a lot has changed. I still want to be a swimmer, and was in fact about to talk to a recruiter, but I got crushed flatter than a doornail., but I cant get it out of my head. I have different questions to look at now. I am no longer afraid of hieghts. In fact, I am on a search and rescue team and hang off cliffs picking up hurt climbers. Still dont run though. What is the average salary? I dont overvalue it, but its still a concern. Also, I am in college, if I wait and finish it does that affect anything? Thank you again( and again..and again..and.)

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I got crushed flatter than a doornail

Could you elaborate on this a little?

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What is the average salary?

Depends on your paygrade.
http://www.military.com/milita...Military-Pay,00.html

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Also, I am in college, if I wait and finish it does that affect anything?

Yes, you would meet the educational requirements to apply for Officer Candidate School. The key word here is apply, it's a selection process and very tough to get in. With 60 or more semester hours of college, you and enlist in pay grade E-3, 30 in pay grade E-2.

Story behind "crushed flatter than a doornail". I was going to go to talk to the San Diego recruiter. I was talking about it one day in the kitchen and all of a sudden my dad said flat out "I dont think you can do it". It may not seem like a big deal to most, but I put a lot of stock in what my parents think. Hes a marine, so hes not against the service. He just doesnt think I can do it. Can I be an officer and still be a recue swimmer? Also, do I only need an AA degree, or a bachlor?

No you cannot be an officer and a rescue swimmer. It is an enlisted job. As for your dad's comments, if I didn't do stuff because someone, including my dad, said they didn't think I could do it, I would still be sitting on my couch in my parent's house. All you can do is try.

In order to be an officer, you need to have a Bachelor's degree if you aren't in the service already.

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all of a sudden my dad said flat out "I dont think you can do it".

My take on this - "If you think you can, or if you think you can't - you're right!"

As mentioned in Dolphindriver's post, sometimes being told you can't do something can be a good thing. It can strengthen your resolve to do it.

And even if you don't become an Aviation Survival Technician, there are plenty of other good jobs you can do in the Coast Guard. You will have plenty of time to decide. Most of the time, you go to a regular Coast Guard unit after recruit training, then put in for a school. AST is never offered up on the guaranteed school program.

And yeah, like Dolphindriver said, you need at least a bachelor's degree to even apply for Officer Candidate School. Even then, the possibility of never being selected is very real.

Thank guys. I know you have been putting up with me for a while.

It's good to look before you leap.

I mentioned earlier, many applicants I had were interested in AST. I know some later became ASTs. In fact, I was watching a documentary on the Coast Guard and saw one of my applicants in training to be an AST. He later graduated.

But some applicants I put in changed their minds. When they got to their first unit following recruit training, they decided on something else. Back in 1991, there was an interesting story in the Coast Guard Magazine. It was about a Hawaiian woman who enlisted in the Coast Guard. It had a picture of her in a grass skirt, and she explained what the Hula was all about. In the article, she also said she originally wanted to be an AST. But after joining, she found out she had more of an aptitude for office work. So instead, she ended up going to yeoman school.