I am a senior in college talked to  a recruiter today. I am very interested in MES. My questions are do MES' go on underway frequently recruiter said 70 days at most and i see varying things online. Another question if I am married when I go to A school does my wife move with me and we are given housing or allowance. Lastly, if you find a niche in a location could you stay, do MES move frequently, and how many of you current cg found it possible to attain home ownership because of moving frequently just wondering, Thanks

Do you mean Maritime Enforcement Specialist (ME)?

yes

Your wife will not go to A school with you. It is common practice to move every 3 to 4 years in the coast guard. You can own a home while in the coast guard also i have meet a couple people that have bought a home in every place they have been stationed or even buy one then when they move buy another and just rent out the other house.

on another note break your questions up as 1. 2. 3. so people can try to answer them a little cleared as you will be asking a clear defined question at that point and not just running them all together

Okey thanks just a couple more questions
1. How long is A school
2. DO Me's move often or do they stay in one location similar to police? Are they usually in one location more than another because of needs?
3. Is A school like boot camp or are you allowed personal things such as cell phones?
4.If any of you guys are married do your wives work? or are you able to provide for your children by you working alone in the cg? This is very important to me I think it is a grat benefit if my wife could be a stay home parent.

WG, you're getting way ahead of yourself. Focus on qualifying on getting into the CG. A school is a long way away, and things can change rapidly.

A-School is a very long way off if you choose ME. I too am leaning towards it, but I leave for boot in 12 days. I can barely think past that tuesday, much less graduation and beyond.
As for a description of ME A-school, check out the ME thread under the jobs/rates section. TheLurker is the only ME active on the forum that I know of, and he describes A-school in a few posts there.

You are allowed to have personal items at A school. Laptop, cell phone, I have heard some people say they had a tv in their barracks room, there is a tv lounge. So it is a little more relaxed then boot camp as far as that is concerned. However, you will find it is far more structured as far as PT and things of that nature than a unit. So it is a trade off.

I found out I was pregnant with our son and I only worked a few more months. Then I was a stay at home wife & mother. Did we have exciting vacations and able to start the fireplace by burning hundred dollar bills? Not a chance! But we did always have food, 2 cars, a house (a very nice house), electric, gas, water... we rarely ever worried about monthly bills. I was not the best "saver" so if there was a major problem in a month... a new transmission in the car, we worried a bit when we were still younger enlisteds. But we still always managed without any problems of falling behind or anything. As we advanced of course even those emergency situations got a lot easier to handle. It is possible to have a stay at home mom/wife. Unless you have real champagne taste and need a 2nd salary to be able to afford the high end things.

Thank you old guard, your answers really helped, although I am young I tend to think ahead. I am also considering applying for ocs, so I want to try ocs first if I am not selected then enlisted. I am trying to go through the coast guard and then go to law school and be a lawyer within the cg

Just wondering what my chances of getting in to the CG are i here it is very selective. I am 22 years old i live with my girlfriend and her 2 kids she is prior active duty in the AF and doing reserves now, i have ben active my whole life I have a physically demanding job delivering beer i was a tri athlete all through h.s I excercise every day no smoking no drinking clean med rec. criminal rec. good credit, My uncle was an Army ranger and my cousin is a Marine and also have famly in law enforcment. I love to learn and love being part of a team, intrested in port secrurity or being a BM or GM. 66 inches 150 pounds.

No one here can calculate your odds. Contact a recruiter and get the process started.

i will tell you if you are married to her you will not be accepted into the CG.

Welcome aboard shafer. You sound like a good prospect but it doesn't matter what I think, I'm just a Coastie Mom. Get to a recruiter, get everything worked out and they'll let you know. Best of luck. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask away. We are always around to help out how we can.

1.After graduation do we get directly sent to school? if not what do wile waiting for school?
2.Is it possible to request living off base so me and my g.f can get a appt. or possibly a house togahter?

1. No. You report to your unit. You get qualifications done, do scut work, and do whatever missions the unit does until you go to school roughly 6 months to 1 year.

2. If you aren't married you are considered single. You'll be given housing according to the standards of your unit. You could be assigned to a rack on a cutter, a barracks room, or in some cases Basic Allowance for Housing if those aren't available. There's nothing you can do to increase your odds of getting BAH.

Sometimes you can request to be released from Gov quarters, but you might not receive any BAH. At my last unit I requested to be released from the house I had to share with some shipmates, but until I was married I had to pay for my appartment out of pocket.

The other thing to consider when moving with a girl/boyfriend situation... You get to your station, you are released from housing or you need to get your own housing. OK, you get housing. She has 2 kids, you are going to need at least a 2 bedroom place. You will not get BAH for dependants. Then you get orders to A school... YOU are eligible with a military clause to break the lease. SHE is not military, she may be on the hook for the duration of the lease. What if you move someplace a long distance and a great expense from her family? Now she is left alone to foot the bill to an apartment, all alone, away from her family & you! Really think about having a girlfriend tag along. Especially a girlfriend with a ready made family. You are looking at a world of possible complications and heartache and credit destroying mistakes! That doesn't mean run out and make her your wife tomorrow... that doesn't mean dump her like a hot potato. Just really think about the ramifications of having someone tag along behind you when the military does not acknowledge her existence in your life.

My plan has been to wait to move my girlfriend to my first station until we're married. Unless I'm stationed anywhere close to where she lives now, that's the only way we'll be able to financially pull off a move and a place we both can live in. I leave for boot in a week, and it's been a tough time. The temptation is definitely there to just run down to the Justice of the Peace office and get that license so I won't have to spend as much time away from her. But as the old saying goes, haste makes waste, and I want to propose the right way. I still intend to go the JoP route when the proposal comes just so that I won't have to wait for a big ceremony that could be postponed many times before I can have her with me. That big ceremony will come, I just don't want to wait for it before the marriage is legal.
TL,DR version: I'm not bringing my girlfriend with me until I'm prepared to be legally and morally bound to her for the rest of our lives.

TL,DR

MG, are you a Redditor?

Gears, more of a Reddit lurker.  

MG, me too. I'm a huge fan of /r/funny, /r/wtf, and /r/atheim. Not that atheism is an allusion to my personal beliefs, those I will never discuss here. I just happen to find it both insightful and hysterically funny.

Always nice to meet a fellow redditor! I'm a huge fan rage comics so I usually find myself in /r/ffffffuuuuuuuuuuu. Other than that I usually stick to the front page unless I tumble down the reddit rabbit hole...as in, I follow links to other sub reddits until my mind splodes.

I love the rage comics. The insight and life experiences of the average 15 year old summed up in 6 panels or less. I don't spend a whole lot of time in the subreddits. I am curious what else is out there though.

There's a lot out there. I try to stay away from the serious subreddits though, too many crazies in there.
To the OP, sorry for the thread jack! Visit reddit and you'll understand

I searched Bruce Lee, a personal hero, and found some pretty funny Bruce Lee vs Chuck Norris memes. I can't believe SOPA/PIPA and ACTA (?) want to shut down that kind of creativity.

I have to wonder how many people are checking out reddit because of us.

1 was trying to figure out what the heck y'all were talking about...lol

Another question. does an afloat billet stay afloat for a specific amount of time then return or for a long period. I am not familiar with the lingo so i see afloat billet and land any input on the difference.

If you are assigned to an afloat unit, you can expect to be away from your home port for a minimum of 180 days per year. The amount of time spent at sea varies depending on the size of the cutter and the operations going on at the time.

If your lucky enough to go on a 420' cutter than you could be away from homeport as much as 250+ days straight. no big deal. didn't have better things to do anyway.

and WG,

I would enlist before applying for OCS and then waiting for half a year to get the results. You would put your package in by next november and then wait until June 2013 to find out the results. If you want a job, talk to a recruiter now, get a bootcamp date for right after you graduate and then put in an OCS package at your first unit. (Are there still only one class a year? I don't remember)

I did the same thing. I didn't get picked up, so I would have been bummin around from the time till I graduated until a year later to find out that I didn't make it. But instead, I joined right away, got in the package, waited until the next june to find out I didn't make it, and now I probably wont even put in again because I would rather be enlisted. For now, Im about to make 3rd so I would rather enjoy petty officer life then junior officer life