Commission and Education of USCG AC Officers

Source of Commission. The USCG relies heavily on the U. S. Coast Guard Academy for its officer accessions. The USCG gets almost half of its new officers from its Academy as compared to 19 percent for DoD as a whole, as shown in Table 8.6. This large difference can be at least partially explained by the fact that the USCG does not have an ROTC program. The fact that an even greater proportion of the USCG officer corps were Academy graduates is an indication that the retention rate for graduates is higher than for the other sources of officers.

Table 8.6. FY 1998 USCG and DoD Active Component Officer Accessions and Officer Corps by Source of Commission and Educational Attainment (Percent)
	Officer Accessions		Officer Corps
	Coast Guard	DoD	Coast Guard	DoD
Source of Commission
Academy	44.6	18.9	53.0	18.1
ROTC – Scholarship	0.0	28.0	0.0	20.0
ROTC – No Scholarship	0.0	11.5	0.0	20.7
OCS/OTS	38.3	18.6	36.1	19.1
Direct Appointment	17.1	17.1	10.9	17.3
Other	0.0	5.8	0.0	4.9
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Education Level
Less than College Graduate	23.4	4.9	16.1	2.4
College Graduate (B.A., B.S., etc.)	70.2	81.0	69.6	54.0
Advanced Degree (M.A., Ph.D., etc.)	6.4	14.1	14.3	43.6
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Columns may not add to total due to rounding. Percentages do not include "Unknown" data. Also see Appendix Tables B-35 (Active Component Officer Accessions and Officer Corps by Education and Service), B-40 (Active Component Officer Accessions by Source of Commission, Service, and Gender), B-41 (Active Component Officer Corps by Source of Commission, Service, and Gender), E-20 (Coast Guard Active Component Officer Accessions and Officer Corps by Education), and E-22 (Coast Guard Active Component Officer Accessions and Officer Corps by Source of Commission, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity).

Educational Attainment. Table 8.6 shows that USCG officer accessions and members of the officer corps were less likely than their overall DoD counterparts to possess a college degree. The USCG has two commissioning programs that provide opportunities for a commission without a college degree. An enlisted member of the USCG who has attained the grade of E-5 and has at least 30 college credits can apply to attend the USCG's Officer Candidate School (OCS), thereby making a commission possible without college completion. In a related program, a USCG member who achieves the rank of chief warrant officer may apply for OCS attendance or a commission via the "Warrant-to-Lieutenant" program.(6) These programs are indicative of USCG's emphasis on experience and education in its commissioning decisions.