Born Ready Coast Guard

The Coast Guard doesn’t get any respect in milblogging circles, so I try to bring them under my wing every now and then. Recently the Coast Guard began a new recruiting/retention campaign known as “Born Ready“. As part of the campaign, they’re releasing videos that show potential recruits what it’s like to spend “a day with the Coasties”.

What was really cool is that they recently made a trip down to South Carolina to visit the USCG MLE Academy. They shot some really cool footage, met with both graduates and enlistees in the academy, and it was an amazing experience. Or at least, it looks like it was judging from this video:

If you check out their Daily Motion channel you’ll see a number of new videos on there as well as their three final videos from the Academy

Recently, the Coast Guard has been playing a large role in trying to contain the oil spill off the coast of Louisiana. Below is some raw Coast Guard footage of one of their dispersant operations. Dispersant is sprayed over oil off the coast of Venice, La., May 5, 2010. The dispersant is being used in efforts to halt the spread of oil throughout the Gulf of Mexico after the April 20 explosion of the mobile offshore drilling unit, Deepwater Horizon. Coast Guard video by Petty Officer 3rd Class Stephen Lehmann. It’s amazing how close to sea level these planes are flying. By the way, are those the old WWII C-47 jump planes?

If you have an iPhone, the USCG have a very cool game you can download for free at the following link: http://itunes.apple.com/app/uscg-pursuit/id350126723?mt=8. Sadly, you don’t get to fly the C-47s! But, it’s good to see the Coast Guard playing the Social Media game. In full disclosure, we were contacted by the Coast Guard about these events and asked if we could publicize. We do so willingly without any coercion. The words are mine, the videos are theres.