Each year approximately 3,500 guardsmen graduate from the Coast Guard’s boot camp in Cape May, New Jersey. The rigorous, eight-week program is designed to prepare enlistment recruits for life in the Coast Guard and weed out those unsuited for service. Roughly 80 percent of the trainees who start the program go on to join the fleet.
During the program, recruits are introduced to military culture, undergo intense physical training and learn skills such as first aid, firefighting, weapons handling and practical seamanship.
This behind-the-scenes video by Andre Malok for NJ.com shows what it’s like to be a recruit:
Cadets at the Coast Guard Academy undergo boot camp during Swab Summer, which includes a multiday voyage on the training barque Eagle. You can read about it in Soundings’ August 2016 issue.
