Coast Guard Reserve

In the Coast Guard Reserve you don't just practice for things that might happen someday. You do them! You will spend an average of one weekend a month (and two weeks a year) working alongside about 40,000 men and women in active service—performing vital missions and essential duties that will benefit your community and your country.

Find out how you can play a critical role in the defense of our country.

- Air Force Reserve
- Army Reserve
- Coast Guard Reserve
- Marine Corps Reserve

- Naval Reserve
- Air National Guard
- Army National Guard

Most reservists belong to a unit in their community, or the unit closest to closest to their home. If you live near a large port, for instance, you could be assigned to port security—monitoring cargo operations or inspecting U.S. and foreign vessels for safety violations or contraband. If you live on the coast or near a large lake, you could be working at a Coast Guard search and rescue station—saving capsized boaters, fighting pollution and keeping navigational aids in working order. Or you could be assigned to law enforcement duties—stopping violators of U.S. offshore commercial fishing laws. Or stopping smugglers from bringing illegal drugs into the country.

Educational Benefits
Reservists are encouraged to pursue higher education with the aid of various Coast Guard benefits aimed at the achievement of this goal.

Selected Reserve Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB-SR)
The MGIB program provides up to 36 months of education benefits. You may use this education assistance program for degree programs, certificate or correspondence courses, cooperative training, independent study programs, apprenticeship/on-the-job training, and vocational flight training programs. Remedial, refresher and deficiency training are available under certain circumstances.

Eligibility for this program is determined by the Selected Reserve components. VA makes the payments for this program. Your benefit entitlement ends 10 years from the date of your eligibility for the program, or on the day you leave the Selected Reserve.

Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges
This dedicated network of colleges and universities will help expedite the college degree process by providing guaranteed transferability of courses. These institutions work together to make it possible for personnel to begin a degree with one institution and complete it with courses taken at other institutions as personnel relocate during their Coast Guard careers. Enrolling in a SOCCOAST college provides a number of benefits, including a "home college" that evaluates prior learning experiences, a clear degree plan, and guaranteed transfer of courses among SOCCOAST institutions.

Tuition Assistance for Distance Learning
The Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES) will pay up to 75% of your tuition UP-FRONT for courses lasting 24 weeks or less, and have specific start and finish dates. As long as an accredited college or university offers the course, DANTES will help you pay for it--even if the course doesn't appear in the DANTES catalog. If the course is more than 24 weeks long, it will be funded on a reimbursable basis. If you fail the course for any reason, you must return the tuition assistance.

Petty Officer Selectee Program
If you have no prior service and you are between the ages of 17 and 27, you may qualify for this program. You will take about 30 weeks of basic and advanced training—including specific training in your chosen skill. Your schooling is guaranteed before you return to civilian life.

Direct Petty Officer
If you are between the ages of 26 and 35 with a skill, and have no prior military experience, you may be able to take advantage of this program. This lets you enter the Coast Guard Reserve directly as a petty officer, with immediate responsibility and and the pay to go along with it.

Prior Service Program
If you have prior military experience and meet our age requirements, you may qualify for this program. Depending on the specialty held while in the service, veterans may enlist at the same rate previously held on active duty. Many veterans chooses this program to finish out their 20 years service for added retirement benefits.

Student Reserve Program
If you are still in school (high school seniors, college or vocational) and are between the ages of 17 and 28, this program lets you join the Coast Guard Reserve without interrupting your schooling. You will train for two summers and serve one weekend a month during the school year. You will be paid for your weekend duty. After training, you will put your newly acquired skills to use one weekend a month.

Pay and Allowances
Pay, allowances, benefits and entitlements depend, all or in part, on a member’s rank, length of service, dependent status, and the type of orders the member is serving under. A member serving on active duty is entitled to basic pay. Basic pay is based on a 30-day monthly rate with pay periods twice each month — the 15th and the 30th. The rate of pay is based on the member’s rank/pay grade and years of service. Inactive Duty Training (IDT) Pay is commonly referred to as “drill pay.” The amount earned for each drill equals 1/30th of the monthly basic pay rate for the member’s rank and years of service.

Reserve Basic Enlisted Indoctrination
REBI is an abbreviated version of the 8-week recruit training attended by most Reserve and active duty recruits. The two-week resident course is split into two versions, 1) non-prior service (RX/Direct Petty Officer enlistees) and 2) prior service enlistees. REBI classes are held monthly at Training Center Cape May. Three types of new recruits attend REBI:

New recruits to the Coast Guard Reserve who have prior military service in one of the other armed services,
Non-prior service professionals (entering through the RX program), and
Former Coast Guardsmen who have not been on active duty or in an active reserve status for more than five years.

Life Insurance
The Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) program provides low cost group life insurance protection to active duty members and reservists, and is available in $10,000 increments up to the maximum of $250,000.

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