What is the minimum amount of time you can serve in the United States Coast Guard?

[Juli3n]

I just want to know what the minimum amount of service time is.I heard it was 8 years, 4 years active duty , and 4 years in reserve.
Oh and by the way, What do you think I should be able to bench press before I go to boot-camp.

[jchanman33]

they have new 2 year enlistments for some jobs in the miltary, not sure if any are coast guard though. But for most jobs 4 years is th least amount of time and no its 4 active and 4 inactive, which is much different than the reserve because unless they are hurting extremley bad for people in your job you will not be called to serve, in fact I have never even heard of an inactive person being called back up other than a General in the AF

[Jenekia B]

The min. amount is 4 yrs. I dont think u'll be bench pressing in Boot Camp.

[ckamk1995]

When you sign up for any military service, you must give them a commintment of 8 years.

Now how you choose to do those 8 years is up to you. You can sign up for 2 years for your first enlistment but then you will have 6 years inactive and you could be called back at any time during those six years. You can also do 8 years and then get out for good and not be called back if you do those 8 years as active.

Contrary to the popular belief, the vast majority of those leaving the service after completing an initial enlistment are separated rather than discharged. The key difference lies in that a discharge completely alleviates the veteran of any unfulfilled military service obligation, whereas a separation (which may be voluntary or involuntary) may leave an additional unfulfilled military service obligation (MSO) to be carried out in the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR).
http://www.military.com/Resources/ResourceFileView?file=Reserve_IRR.htm
http://www.opm.gov/asd/hod/pdf/C022.pdf