Hello all I am prior 4 year active duty Air Force and right after that 3 year Air National Guard. I just recently separated in December 2018. My AFSC was a 3E1x1 ( HVAC/R Technician ). Currently I have a meeting with a recruiter in a week but found this forum and m just looking for general advice. My plan is to return to active duty as I miss serving full time and seems the Coast Guard is a proud service making a direct impact daily. I got out as a E-5 and the ME career sounds like something I would like to get into but from what ive read the school is closed? Just looking for advice or prior people who went back in. Thank you

Posted By kxpro8012345 on 18 Jul 2019 06:10 AM
Hello all I am prior 4 year active duty Air Force and right after that 3 year Air National Guard. I just recently separated in December 2018. My AFSC was a 3E1x1 ( HVAC/R Technician ). Currently I have a meeting with a recruiter in a week but found this forum and m just looking for general advice. My plan is to return to active duty as I miss serving full time and seems the Coast Guard is a proud service making a direct impact daily. I got out as a E-5 and the ME career sounds like something I would like to get into but from what ive read the school is closed? Just looking for advice or prior people who went back in. Thank you

Correct. The wait list for ME A School is closed until further notice. Consequently, that means when it does reopen, the wait time will be extensive. Also know that ME is NOT the only rating that can do law enforcement. All ratings, with the exception of aviation, can be LE qualified. Yet another thing to be aware of in your particular situation is something called High Year Tenure (HYT). Basically, this is a career management tool and what it means is that if you have not achieved a certain pay grade by a certain point in time, you will be processed for separation. Since you'll be coming in with seven years under your belt, you'll definitely want to address this with your recruiter.

Great point thank you

Also another question how is the coast guard PCS ( Permanent Change of Station ) dictated? Are you required to PCS every x amount of years or do some people get stuck at stations forever?

Depending upon the unit, you'll move within 2 to 4 years-ish. You will not go to one place and stay there forever. Unless you wish to homeport. I know people that have done that but I wouldn't want to.

Really pay attention to that high year tenure issue. You will most likely come in as an E3. I feel like E3 high year tenure is 8 years, but I'm not sure on that. With your HVAC experience you might a good fit for machinery technician as some of them do a little HVAC work. Once you make E4 you will have to work fast to advance again to avoid high year tenure as I believe it is 12 years for E4. Be aware that it is possible to get a waiver for high year tenure if you are showing an effort to advance, but I'm not sure if that works for prior service. Good luck and hope to see you at Cape May soon!