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Coxswain Qualification Essay

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The Coxswain qualification is one of the hardest fought for qualification of a Boatswain mates’ career. For a Reservist to obtain this qualification it is even harder. The Coast Guard has tried to ease this by allowing Reservists to attend Coxswain “C” school. However, while they are attending the school, another policy is quietly wading in the waters for the perfect time to strike. This is the policy that states that the hours these members earn while underway on a standard Coast Guard boat, while at school, do not count towards their currency maintenance hours for the crewman qualification that they are operating under while at the school. In District 9, most of these members end up losing their certifications after returning to their units because there is not enough time left in the boating season to obtain the hours they need to retain their qualification. This is causing a time consuming process to recertify, it is demoralizing to the member, and it is a waste of Coast Guard money. If the hours counted while at Coxswain “C” school for currency maintenance requirements, the school would be more beneficial for the member and the member would be more beneficial to the Coast Guard. At face value it may not seem that …show more content…

However, they were not able to apply that knowledge as soon as they returned to the unit because now they have to recertify as a crewman. Traditionally, by the time the member earns their crewman letter back the boating season is half over. Now they can finally start working on Coxswain again, but at what cost? How motivated is this member going to be almost a year after returning from school? How much more productive would this member have been if only those hours would have counted and they would have been able to qualify coxswain at the start of this year and stead of having to go through the process for crewman all over

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