What's it like? Seeing some videos on the internet, it seems like a really close knit family. But are you out in the ocean for months? Do you return to dry land frequently? Its all unknown to me haha Thanks.

Matters what cutter you are on, Big white and out of sights are out for around 3 months, with 87 and 110s being out for 3-5 days at a time. We go out for a month and than are in for a month and pull in for a night every week or so. Sometimes we work around the area other times we go to other places.

To be honest, Living on the cutter at times can be horrible, living with your supervisors and others can suck, but mostly it's basically a big fraternity, you learn to enjoy the company of others, you'll probably see them more than their family does. I can count on the guys for anything and they can depend on me. We hang out off duty even though we have just seen each other for a month. You'll learn to work together, because the guy who sleeps in the rack above you who farts and snores and steps on your rack instead of using the ladder could be the guy saving your life, or hook you up and relieve you from watch early because you are puking your brains out.

hmmm sounds like it would be kinda fun, a little rough at times but a life experience none the less. not too sure about being away at sea for 3 months, i would probably go nuts hahaha.

there is moral events on the cutter and other things to do. I get stir crazy on our cutter being gone for a month, It's small so you have your choice of watch on the bridge, trying to sleep in forward berthing, or hang out on the mess deck. You learn to help the cook or get really good at playing ps3 lol.

Sounds like its the job for me. Assuming I pass meps and get in and all that good stuff...

E is an exceptional sailor, so he makes it sound easy. Cutter life can be summed up as long bouts of boredom punctuated by moments of chaos and fear. One minute life is routine and mundane the next your hanging off the side of a small boat wrestling a small child from the jaws of a sea serpent.

But, then every cutter and every mission is different.

Was that a small, green sea serpent? Or one of the really big red ones?

One of the green ones that looks like a snake/eel... you know the kind that wraps itself around a ship and drags sailors to their doom?

Hmmmm I think I've heard about those... but would the small child count as a sacrifice or something? Hahaha

No, the small child would be the reason we would launch for rescue operation.

Do any of them have exercise equipment/weightrooms?

Posted By GymRat on 20 Aug 2010 04:45 AM
Do any of them have exercise equipment/weightrooms?

Take the virtual tour of the CGC BERTHOLF  http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/bertholf/ 

Click the virtual tour link (upper left side) then either check it out by exploring or taking the guided tour the "Main Gym" is aft on the 3rd deck...enjoy!

Posted By GymRat on 20 Aug 2010 04:45 AM
Do any of them have exercise equipment/weightrooms?

Yes. All of our junk food is stowed underneath the benches on the messdeck. I have to lift up the top of the bench to get candy.

During the summer months we can go to the fantail and do some pushups,situps, pullups, but we don't have equipment. We had an FS who thought he would jump rope, we called out over the loudhailer how many he had done until he fell over lol.

The larger cutters have some work out equipment. If you want a Gold's Gym join the Navy.

Posted By captkyguy on 20 Aug 2010 07:33 AM

Take the virtual tour of the CGC BERTHOLF  http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/bertholf/ 

Click the virtual tour link (upper left side) then either check it out by exploring or taking the guided tour the "Main Gym" is aft on the 3rd deck...enjoy!

To be fair though, our OS class took a tour of the USCGC Waesche the other day in Alameda (Bertholf's sister ship) and those things are Cadillac's compared to other cutters.

If you get assigned to a Black Hull (Aids to Navigation Cutter), you will likely not need any workout equipment. The labor on one of these bad boys is very intensive!

is the uscg.mil email reliable when the cutter is underway? or it doesn't work for awhile?

matters what unit you are at. When I first reported we would only turn the internet on once a day for about 10 minutes. It would take 2-3 days to get an email aka not worth the trouble I just waited to get in port. Sometimes I would send an email and talk to the person on the phone before the email got to them. Now we have a new system which has internet all the time, sometimes if my mom is on her computer at work we can almost have an email conversation. with OPSEC and all whats there to say. Hey, ate chicken this morning. threw it up 10 minutes later. Watched jerry springer and studied some coxswain stuff. think im going to sleep my whole off time after watch. k bye.

If we hit it right, Colin and I will do the email conversation thing. Like E said, with OPSEC its hard to talk too much about pertinent things but then Colin & I never talk about anything pertinent anyway! LOL But we talk about hockey, football, the race over the weekend, the food this year at the state fair (which by the way is deep fried s'mores pop tarts, deep fried frito pie, deep fried beer & deep fried margaritas woohoo). But I will admit there have been times I have emailed Colin or his dad and it will take days to hear back from either one of them. So I would believe it is some sort of a hit & miss sort of thing.

Welcome to our little slice of internet home, Rainbow. If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to post or just chat... we've all been there on some level and have varying degrees of experience, take advantage of it.
Macie

Thank you Ms.Macie I feel a little better after reading your post, I haven't hear from my fiancée in a week, and because is my first time with him when he is underway I really don’t know how the emails work , I was getting emails from him but now nothing I can’t believe how hard this can be I really admire all you guys because is hard.

He could not have access to a workstation, the unit can be involved in an operation or soforth. Could be busy, could be a network problem. On big boats they have one connection to run all their workstations, it can get lagged down(from what i've heard)