“The comradery with our crew is amazing… it’s an honor to be trusted with my crew’s health and wellbeing.”
Provide emergency healthcare to people in distress and medical care to Coast Guard crews in clinics, aboard cutters, and at operational units.
ASVAB VE+MK+GS+AR: 207, with AR: 50 minimum
Catalog listing, not a contract offer. Confirm with a recruiter.
Health Services Technicians provide medical care across clinics, cutters, and small boat stations. Work covers patient intake, vital signs, treatments, immunizations, lab draws, pharmacy support, and records. Afloat or at remote units you may be the only medical provider present, which raises the responsibility considerably. Preventive medicine, health readiness tracking, and medical supply management are ongoing duties. Training and recertification run continuously throughout the rating.
You learn patient assessment, emergency care, pharmacology basics, sterile technique, and clinical documentation. Nationally recognized emergency medical certification is commonly earned. The rating teaches independent clinical judgment, since a provider is not always available. You gain medical logistics, records, and readiness reporting skills. Advanced qualification as an independent duty health services technician is a realistic path.
The job builds calm competence, because the crew looks to you the moment something goes wrong. You develop meticulous habits around dosage, documentation, and sterile procedure. It teaches empathy paired with decisiveness, a combination rarely learned this young. Health Services Technicians tend to become trusted people within their units. You also gain independence and comfort making consequential calls alone.
This translates directly into civilian healthcare, including EMT, paramedic, medical assistant, and patient care technician roles. Documented clinical hours strengthen applications to nursing, physician assistant, and respiratory therapy programs. The GI Bill combined with prior patient contact makes clinical degrees realistic within a few years. Healthcare employment is stable and available in every geographic market. Independent duty experience in particular stands out to employers and admissions committees.
Published personal accounts with source links. Each describes an individual experience, not a typical assignment or a guarantee of your own experience.
“The comradery with our crew is amazing… it’s an honor to be trusted with my crew’s health and wellbeing.”
“When it came down to it, we had to adapt and rise to the occasion together to help the Bahamians.”
Quotes are from U.S. government public-domain news stories (DVIDS, army.mil and other official sources). Individuals and units are named as reported at time of publication.
You open the clinic each morning checking the sick call list, restocking supplies, and readying the exam room for patients. Throughout the day you take vitals, administer treatments and immunizations, and respond to emergencies aboard the cutter or at the station as the unit's medic. You maintain health records, manage the pharmacy, and stand ready to stabilize an injured crew member until higher care is reached.
No suitable exact-MOS or related career-field video has been verified for this page yet. No unrelated video or search-results page is substituted.
$43,902–$74,948
2026 basic pay only; the same grade and service time pay the same across jobs. Promotions are assumed, not promised. Excludes allowances, bonuses and special pays.
For Coast Guard HS Health Services Technician, official service-wide guidance and any exact feeder-list matches are distinguished below from unverified specialty-specific requirements. Ranks are not separate jobs, and these possibilities are not guaranteed promotions or available contracts.
Examples of higher service ranks
These are service-wide rank names, not a verified promotion ladder for this specialty. Examples are not exhaustive; appointments sharing a pay grade are not additional promotion steps.
Official military rank referenceThe October 2026 Reserve Servicewide Examination announcement makes advancement conditional on rating/pay-grade qualifications and command recommendation, with rating-specific examination exceptions. Its scope is Reserve E-5 through E-7, not every grade or active-duty cycle. It does not establish a promotion ceiling for this listing.
Coast Guard October 2026 Reserve advancement examinationService-level application reference—not a verified next step for this listing
Officer Candidate School is a separate competitive commissioning pathway open to Coast Guard enlisted members. This general program does not establish individual eligibility or a transfer to any particular officer specialty. Warrant appointments have separate requirements; no rating-to-warrant feeder match is asserted here.
Coast Guard Officer Candidate SchoolSpecialty-specific advancement, senior assignments, and eligibility for a different personnel category have not been verified for this listing. No feeder eligibility or automatic transition to another specialty is implied.
Advancement depends on current service rules, performance, required education, qualifications, selection, and authorized positions—not simply years served. Confirm current requirements with an official recruiter or career counselor.
Related military jobs below are for exploration, not promised progression or confirmed transfer paths.
Sources reviewed 2026-10-03. This is a partial evidence review, not verification of every advancement route for this specialty. Source retrieval dates do not replace policy effective dates.
Career-field mappings, not automatic qualifications. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2024 national medians). O*NET links explain each occupation; military experience does not guarantee a job or salary.
Provide emergency healthcare to people in distress and medical care to Coast Guard crews in clinics, aboard cutters, and at operational units.
Health Services Technicians provide medical care across clinics, cutters, and small boat stations. Work covers patient intake, vital signs, treatments, immunizations, lab draws, pharmacy support, and records. Afloat or at remote units you may be the only medical provider present, which raises the responsibility considerably. Preventive medicine, health readiness tracking, and medical supply management are ongoing duties. Training and recertification run continuously throughout the rating.
You learn patient assessment, emergency care, pharmacology basics, sterile technique, and clinical documentation. Nationally recognized emergency medical certification is commonly earned. The rating teaches independent clinical judgment, since a provider is not always available. You gain medical logistics, records, and readiness reporting skills. Advanced qualification as an independent duty health services technician is a realistic path.
This translates directly into civilian healthcare, including EMT, paramedic, medical assistant, and patient care technician roles. Documented clinical hours strengthen applications to nursing, physician assistant, and respiratory therapy programs. The GI Bill combined with prior patient contact makes clinical degrees realistic within a few years. Healthcare employment is stable and available in every geographic market. Independent duty experience in particular stands out to employers and admissions committees.
ASVAB VE+MK+GS+AR: 207, with AR: 50 minimum. This is the catalog's listed requirement, not an individual eligibility decision. Confirm the current standard and any exceptions with the service.
This specialty can be pursued through an initial enlistment, subject to eligibility and available contracts. Confirm the current status of this specific classification with an official recruiter.
Catalog sources consulted: 2026-09-26. This is not an entry-by-entry verification date. No record-specific verification date is recorded. Occupation audit evidence reviewed: 2026-09-26; this does not re-verify every requirement.
Official branch occupation evidence
Occupation identified. This occupation was identified in the cited source. This does not verify requirements, benefits, or a current opening.
Official occupation evidence · reviewed 2026-09-26
Confirmed. Catalog evidence is not an inventory of open contracts.
No dated public inventory confirmed a currently open recruiting contract for this role. This does not mean there are no openings. Confirm current eligibility and offers with an official recruiter.
Advertised — Coast Guard, as of 2026-09-28Deployment likelihood: Moderate*
* Estimated. Rank progression and specialty-pay eligibility are illustrative assumptions. Deployment likelihood, when shown, is inferred from similar specialties in the branch and career field, not a published specialty deployment rate.
Descriptions may change. No military role is free from risk of injury or death, including non-combat work. Catalog review dates do not establish current openings or re-verification of every requirement.
Recruiting signals reflect what each branch published on the dates shown. They are not offers, and they do not mean a contract is open for you. Eligibility depends on your ASVAB scores, medical qualification, security clearance eligibility, and ship date. Confirm everything with an official recruiter. See our Disclaimer and Terms.