U.S. Coast Guard Direct Commission Officers
The United States Coast Guard uses the DCO program to bring specialized skills and backgrounds into the Coast Guard commissioned officer corps. The DCO course is conducted by the Officer Candidate School, located at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. Depending on program and background, the course is three, four, or five weeks long. For the five-week program, the first week is an Indoctrination week.
There are seven Direct Commission Officer programs:
- Aviation
- NOTE: Individuals in this category are typically rated/designated military aviators who have previously served on active duty as officers in other branches of the U.S. armed forces. They have transferred to and are being recommissioned as officers in the U.S. Coast Guard in order to serve as Coast Guard Aviators.
- Engineering (Various disciplines)
- Environmental Management
- Intelligence
- Legal
- Prior-Trained Military Officer
- Maritime Academy Graduate From the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy or a State Merchant Marine Academy
Some DCO programs may not have openings each year. While DCOs are expected to fill specific specialty areas, they are not specifically precluded from crossing into other operational or support billets in follow-on assignments.
Read more about this topic: Direct Commission Officer
Famous quotes containing the words coast, guard, direct, commission and/or officers:
“Forced from home, and all its pleasures,
Afric’s coast I left forlorn;
To increase a stranger’s treasures,
O’er the raging billows borne.
Men from England bought and sold me,
Paid my price in paltry gold;
But, though theirs they have enroll’d me,
Minds are never to be sold.”
—William Cowper (1731–1800)
“Faster, faster with no loss of ritual
Stiff minions without banners, a steady guard ...”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Science is a system of statements based on direct experience, and controlled by experimental verification. Verification in science is not, however, of single statements but of the entire system or a sub-system of such statements.”
—Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970)
“Children cannot eat rhetoric and they cannot be sheltered by commissions. I don’t want to see another commission that studies the needs of kids. We need to help them.”
—Marian Wright Edelman (20th century)
“Now for civil service reform. Legislation must be prepared and executive rules and maxims. We must limit and narrow the area of patronage. We must diminish the evils of office-seeking. We must stop interference of federal officers with elections. We must be relieved of congressional dictation as to appointments.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)