Thanks that is good info to pass on. He knows the hard part will be getting in to USCG OCS. Hopefully his strong work will carry him to a flight slot. What is the earliest one can apply for a flight school out of OCS? Is there a certain billet that is best to help an application? Is a billet that requires a lot of training a negative meaning we put a lot into you so you need to stay here? Again thanks for any and all info.
There have been billets right out of OCS to flight school for the past year running as far as I know...Several of the folks who started the program at the same time I did were fresh from OCS.
No specific first tour billet will make you more or less marketable to flight school and there is no JO job that will take too long to train into that you can't get fligh, imo.
JO tours in the Coast Guard are meant to teach you skills as a division officer/administrator and give you a taste of as many of the jobs and situations you are likely to encounter. Example: I had 12+ collateral duties including 3 different divisions-20 people total, was an Education Services O, Urinalysis O, Law Enforcement Coordinator, Health Program Coordinator, XO's Special Assistant (earned that one...being a dumb JO), ships store custodian, welcome board coordinator and some silly less important ones. I'm not even close to an expert at ANY of those- but I got to see A LOT of stuff and work with all of the crew on regular basis.