RESERVIST MAGAZINE THE MORE YOU KNOW How the coronavirus is expediting the future of Coast Guard training Despite the impact of the coronavirus to the workforce and the economy, the Coast Guard’s missions continue. Executing those missions requires trained, qualified people filling the roles and positions around the country: boat crews, boarding officers, inspectors, pilots, maintenance technicians, logistics specialists and more—all these jobs still require training. The Coast Guard’s training system has historically required in-person attendance, but given the physical constraints in place to help reduce the spread of coronavirus, it’s been difficult to maintain throughput working within the legacy training model. Transfer season continues, albeit more slowly, and qualified members are leaving and reporting to new units without the typical number of newly-trained replacements coming in behind them to fill the gap. The Force Readiness Command, which develops the plans, policies, and programs for formal Coast Guard education and training, is learning to adapt. Applying a two-fold strategy, FORCECOM and its eight major training centers have rolled out adaptive, creative solutions to maintain as much training capacity as possible within the parameters of the pandemic. 34 RESERVIST � Issue 2 • 2020 Physical changes FORCECOM’s first priority was student safety and reducing the risk of spreading the coronavirus; a large part of Coast Guard training relies on inherently close-contact, especially at boot camp, A-school and law enforcement training. Keeping the flow of graduates to the field is paramount to ensuring the Coast Guard’s current and future effectiveness. For example, each company of Coast Guard recruits comprises more than 100 people, and with three or more companies simultaneously on board Training Center Cape May, N.J. and in different stages of training, meeting this challenge was no small feat. “The first question we asked ourselves when reviewing our course offerings was, ‘Is this training mission essential and time critical?’ If the answer was no, we deferred it to a later date when circumstances would permit the training,” said Tim Quiram, the acting deputy commander of FORCECOM. Closely mirroring the efforts of other military services, the Coast Guard restructured basic training to meet Center for Disease Control recommendations, including more space between bus seats, expanded berthing in squad bays, and the
