I'm a 28-year old veteran served in the Navy for 4 years and have been a drilling reservist since getting off active duty (a year ago). My education includes a bachelors degree but since the Navy has already turned me down for their OCS program I have opted not to dawdle with the far-more-selective Coast Guard OCS spiel. I've been doing the in-processing for the coast guard since getting my DD368 and am at the stage of picking my ship out date. There are some matters I wanted to address before making my final plans and I was hoping some of the other forum members might be able to offer some insight into details from people (not my recruiter) who have endured the real deal.
1) Boot Camp vs DEPOT.
I am well aware of the 3-week accelerated program but from what I understand it is incredibly selective and spots are extremely limited; my intention of going Coast Guard includes resuming an active duty career. I would really prefer to not dawdle with Cape May for several months to see if they'd even be willing to offer me the opportunity to attend DEPOT because if I can get a guaranteed slot at regular boot camp and finish those 8 weeks LONG before I would even theoretically report to DEPOT I would definitely choose the former. But then comes the next issue.
2) Being a non-rate vs picking an A-school at the recruiters' office
I was an Operations Specialist with the active navy but there are a couple other ratings in the CG I was interested in trying for. I did do time (9 months) as an undesignated seaman chipping paint off the weatherdeck before striking OS and would greatly appreciate not having to endure a similar situation with the Coast Guard.
-For those of you who served in the other branches before making the transition to the Coast Guard, how would you describe the experience? (If you're willing to share your story of whether you did boot camp or DEPOT, served as a non-rate or selected a rating right off the bat, that would be great)
-Percentage wise, what volume of prior service applicants would you say go through regular boot camp as opposed to 3-week DEPOT?