[Shortwave]

Another thing to consider is, the Coast Guard has very limited slots for the Academy. These slots are generally assigned to the social elite who's children want a military experience but can avoid combat. I said combat, not dying. A ship, especially a tall-ship, has more way to kill you than you know how to die.

An enlisted career in the Coast Guard can be a tough job because career advancement can get easily bottle-necked because of the size of the force. Also, the officer to enlisted ration is the worst of all the services with the last count being 1 officer to 3 enlisted people. That sucks bad! You can't do anything without a junior office approving something. And, there are so many of them, they create useless jobs for themselves and tend to meddle into the affairs of the enlisted ranks.

[brownsfan]

"A ship, especially a tall-ship, has more way to kill you than you know how to die."

Thank you. I was in the USN from 1977-1981. This was all peacetime, and most people assume I was on a 4 year pleasure cruise. I saw a line snap and kill someone, and we also lost someone over the side. It may not be storming the beaches, but it's always has some danger.
Refueling underway always seems to come at night, during rough seas.

[pbear8]

Another thing to consider is, the Coast Guard has very limited slots for the Academy. These slots are generally assigned to the social elite who's children want a military experience but can avoid combat.

I count five CG academy graduates as friends, none are of socially elite families, they are all middle class and good people.

[11x62]

I think the officer ratio could be skewed due to the large air wing in the guard. All those helios and C-130s. Certainly pilots are all officers.

What size boat requires an officer on board?

The couple of Academy grads I've known sure didn't have connections to get in.

[Labyrinthos]

Another thing to consider is, the Coast Guard has very limited slots for the Academy. These slots are generally assigned to the social elite who's children want a military experience but can avoid combat.

That's not exactly true. Regardless, the USCGA, like all of the service academies, is one of the top engineering schools in the country. Something like 6800 people apply for 400 spots. Grades and SAT/ACT are very important, but the service academies are looking for more than just smart people. I suggest that you check out the details from some of the online college guides like US News and Princeton Review. You'll have to pay for the US News info, but its worth the price.