I did 4 years in the Coast Guard and it was the longest four years of my life. Boot camp sucked, "A" school sucked, and my first and LAST!! unit was HORRIBLE. Our unit seriously needed its own reality show. Everone was on a power trip, "page 7" (Coast guard write up") trip, or tattle taling and just making life tough for no reason. The only reason I would join the coast guard is for the Post 9/11 GI bill. Other than that it isnt worth it. The only way you will advance is to be a kiss ass with your command (Coast Guard bosses) and if your not a kiss ass like I was your just stuck at E-4 forever. REMEMBER you are also paided salary so you will be working 60 hour weeks your whole carrear for know reason other than to make your command look good. If your a single E-3 you will only be making 26,000 a year which isn't crap compared to the hours and BS you put up with. Also, 90% of the people you will meet in your carreer will be people who A. Joined because they had too because they have 2 or 3 kids with 3 different moms and have to paychild support and are now bitter at the world, B. Where too pussy to be a cop so now there just a "wanna be" tool in the coast guard. Or C, people that have a "Know it all attitude" and know they are too retarded to be succesfull in the real world.
I could go on and on about how the cons out weigh the pros but, I hope if your thinking about joining that you will read this and won't join. But if you do, I hope you have a better experiance than i did. And lube up you ass hole because you can't say i didnt tell you so....