Coast To Coasties

By special request, in this episode of the "Coast To Coasties" Podcast, I do a deep dive on my Coast Guard Career so far and share my personal journey through the United States Coast Guard. I discuss my influences growing up that led to me joining the Coast Guard and milestone influences that have shaped my career to this point. Many listeners have requested I do a comprehensive episode of myself so you all can learn more about me as the host of the show delivering the content to everyone. I was honored to receive so many of these requests and am ecstatic to share with you all my story. I go into depth on my influences growing up, why I decided to enlist, and what fueled my motivation to get to the point I am at now in my career. I have personal bias giving an opinion on this episode but I think it's a great one to listen to and I hope to inspire some listeners by telling my adventure. Please reach out with any questions you have for me!

In this episode of the "Coast To Coasties" podcast, I have the privilege of sitting down with my guest, Chief Petty Officer Vicent Bucaneg, to talk about his Coast Guard career and why he loves working as a company commander for recruit bootcamp at Training Center Cape May! He has such a passion for what he considers to be the most fulfilling job in the Coast Guard, as it gives you the ability to make an impact from day 1 of a new Coastie's career and equip them with the tools needed to flourish and be successful once they leave training and head into the fleet. Chief Bucaneg's love for this mission is so great that he is preparing to return to Training Center Cape May as a Company Commander for a second tour this upcoming Summer and he is here to share his thoughts and experiences as to why others should also come back to Cape May as a Company Commander (CC)! We discuss CC School, Work Schedule, Job Benefits, and the impact you get to physically see in shaping our future Coast Guard in our newest seamen recruits! He also gives advice for people preparing to ship out to Cape May, so anyone heading to bootcamp in the future or considering coming back to Cape May as a CC, Tune in to this awesome episode!

In this episode of the "Coast To Coasties" podcast I go in depth on the Olmsted Scholarship Program which is a graduate school program enhanced with language learning opportunities that Coast Guard Officer's can apply to take part in. Founded in 1959 this super selective program involves one year of intense language learning followed by two years at graduate school university in the selected country the committee deems most needed for the scholar. The selected scholar is able to pick a university within that city based on the graduate degree they want to pursue. This immersive program is a very cool opportunity to get paid to learn a language and earn a graduate degree while getting paid by the Coast Guard to benefit the mission in the future. Language learning enthusiasts and graduate school pursuers, tune in this episode is for you!

In this episode of the "Coast To Coasties" Podcast, I sit down with retired Coast Guard Pilot, Aaron Sanders, to have a discussion about the VA Loan. The VA Loan is an attractive 0$ down payment loan that enables Coast Guard and other military members active, reserve, and veteran to compete for housing they otherwise would be unable to afford in competitive real estate markets Coasties often get transferred to. Aaron and I discuss how the VA Loan works to obtain and what types of properties qualify for utilizing this attractive home loan. For anyone interested in renting some housing out for income good news, you can use the VA Loan to purchase up to a Quad Plex 4 housing unit! I recommend everyone listen to this episode as we often get stationed in lucrative housing markets that are always worth considering buying a home in, and the VA Loan enables us as Coasties to do this!

In this episode of the "Coast To Coasties" Podcast, we dive into 2024 with an exciting episode featuring one of the smallest rates in the Coast Guard, highlighting the Diver (DV) Rate with only about 70 active duty divers in the entire U.S Coast Guard. I sit down with (DV1) Diver first class Andy Murillo who walks us through his day to day life as a diver as well as a detailed discussion on the process it takes to become a diver in the Coast Guard regarding career timeline and physical requirements. We also cover the extensive travelling to all the cool places the dive rate has enabled Andy to travel in during his career and his personal advice for those interested in pursuing a career as a diver. This rate was super awesome to get to learn about from Andy and I strongly encourage everyone interested in learning about what our Coast Guard divers do check out this episode.

In this episode of the "Coast To Coasties" podcast, I discuss the programs available to active duty and reservist members that we can utilize in pursuing a bachelors or masters degree while serving in the U.S Coast Guard. I cover various opportunities available for both enlisted and officers including the "Post 9/11 GI Bill", and the "Tuition Assistance Program", as well as the "Coast Guard Graduate School" program for officers. Education is a huge benefit to being apart of the service and I feel it's important that we all utilize these avenues when the timing is right for us, so I am thrilled to be able to share my personal knowledges and experiences with learning about these paths that lead to earning degrees while serving in the Coast Guard so you can maximize the provided benefits. I recommend everyone listen to this episode to gain a better personal understanding on these programs, or to be able to share to someone who you believe can benefit from listening. Thank you!

In this episode of the Coast to Coasties Podcast, I sit down with my guest who is my mother, Jeannie Giacomuzzi and ask her for advice and tips she can give to other parents who are currently or soon to be embarking on the journey of having their child serve in the United States Coast Guard. We discuss great ways to support your children in the Coast Guard whether that be facetiming, care packages, or special vacations to help make your loved one's new career transition go as smoothly as possible with the support of their loved ones helping in some unique and creative ways along the way. This episode is definitely a great one to listen to for any parent looking to understand and figure out how they can best support their Coastie loved ones partaking in the amazing world of the U.S Coast Guard!

In this episode of the "Coast To Coasties" Podcast, I go in depth on a comprehensive discussion of places and regions you could potentially get stationed in the United States Coast Guard. Often times one of the first questions that's going to come up on deciding whether you want to the join the Coast Guard or pick a particular rate is "Where could I potentially get stationed in the Coast Guard?" This is a common thing to ask as you will be spending years of your life somewhere the service assigns you too. For a service such as the Coast Guard where we have a lot of smaller units in more civilian community based areas, it is especially confusing at first to figure out just everywhere we could potentially go! That's why we cover in this episode areas by district and geographic region in and outside our country the Coast Guard could send you. This is an episode you do not want to miss!

In this episode of the "Coast To Coasties" Podcast, I'm sitting down with my good friend Reservist Chief Boatswain Mate, Michael Gould, on our travel back from a high school community outreach event where we talk about the unique camaraderie gained in the military service as well as the importance of community awareness and outreach about what the Coast Guard is, and what we do as an organization. Chief Gould has had a career spanning from the Navy, Army National Guard, Several Fortune 500 Companies, and finally ended up in the Coast Guard where he and I share a passion to inform communities how awesome of a career we have and to give people an opportunity to learn about a paths they may have not known existed to them prior to meeting us. I am thrilled to have an hour to discuss these topics and much more on this exciting episode! I encourage everyone listening to get out in their communities and help make people aware of the Coast Guard and all the cool stuff we do in our very unique work lifestyles!

New Episode! Thank you all for your patience and reaching out for when season 2 would officially launch and it is now! In the long anticipated return of the Coast to Coasties Podcast, I talk about my experience of becoming a Direct Commission Officer from application process to reporting at my unit and attending the Direct Commission Officer school at the Coast Guard Academy and we get into deep detail on what exactly the DCO program is. As being a very unknown program to a lot of Coasties and civilians, it is a great topic to cover as it is an amazing opportunity to apply and become a direct hire officer at a time where the Coast Guard is in great need to hire a lot more officers in the next few years. Direct Commission is a direct hire program looking for niche specialists in their field where if you’re accepted, you put on bars and start working as an officer in your specialty field your skills got you hired for and start performing as an officer in the Coast Guard instantly before even attending DCO school! Check it out to see if you’d be interested and if DCO is the right path for your career progression!