Today’s post for the A to Z challenge is: USCG (United States Coast Guard).

As an American merchant mariner, I have to say I have a love-hate relationship with the USCG. They are the government agency I have to deal with the most in my life at sea.

They do a lot of great things. They protect our waterways, conduct vessel inspections, enforce the safety regulations. They license the people who work on the water. Their search and rescue operations are absolutely heroic. I am relieved to know they’re out there and ready to help if I ever need them.

I do have a lot of issues with them in some other areas, mostly to do with licensing of mariners. I know they’re ‘only doing their job’ and following the rules. But those rules are pretty damned complicated and a lot of them are up for differing interpretations.

As a mariner, I can not work without getting some sort of license from the USCG. In other words, beg permission from the federal government in order to earn a living. Yes, I really do have problems with that.

Besides the philosophical objections, I don’t really think it’s at all necessary to make it as difficult and complicated as it is. Not just that earning the license is difficult (it is), but that the rule making process is so long, drawn out and what comes out at the end is something that almost always makes life more difficult (and expensive) for the mariner just trying to earn a living. We have no clout in Washington DC where the rules are made. 🙁

That’s not all due to the Coast Guard, in fact most of it is simply due to how the political system works (or not) in the US today. Rules are proposed, dozens of different stakeholders make changes and what comes out is a twisted mess of spaghetti that almost never helps the mariners who are the ones who have to deal with it. 🙁