The Coast Guard does have a Direct Commision Engineer DCE program. But the DCA program is only for those with a military flight school in their background. I did know a guy who came in under the DCE program and went to Navy flight school within the first year or so.

A Transition is just training on the aircraft you're going to fly; for Falcons it's all at Mobile, AL. For Hercs you go through AF training at Little Rock and then still need to fly with Coast Guard instructors before being designated at a Coast Guard Co-pilot.

For the C-130 side, E-City is getting the J models on the operational side, and it is a separate "type rating" if you will. So for now, the only unit a C-130J pilot can fly at is E-City (unless you join the Stan team in Mobile).