Originally Posted by
kbay hombre
The Coast Guard is great, and I say that having worked with them numerous times over my career. With that said, they do NOT have reserve aviators; they are the only branch of the military that only has active duty pilots and no reservists. So, mistaplane, keep this in mind. You sound like you might want to either go straight into the reserves or go reserves eventually. Every other branch has part time (reserves/national guard) flying available, but this is not an option in the USCG. And I don't say this to belittle or demean the Coasties; they are some of the best pilots out there, and get a lot more IMC than helo pilots in any other branch, but if you go CG you will be required to fly on active duty for 6-8 years after you finish flight school.
For clarity, you could do an active duty USCG aviation tour, resign from AD and join the USCGR to finish 20. But you would be flying a desk in reserves.