The Coast Guard is looking for a new boot camp facility after it exceeded its recruiting goal and expects to expand its force by another 15,000 personnel over the next several years.
The service is considering existing sites that can be adapted to its recruit training needs, according to the Coast Guard website. The request includes specific requirements, including lodging for 1,200 recruits, dining and medical facilities, classrooms, a pool and up to 250 acres of land.
The request for a new facility comes days after the Coast Guard announced its highest recruiting numbers since 1991, bringing in 5,204 new active-duty enlisted personnel. Its goal was 4,300.
“As the Coast Guard continues its historic growth, we’re outpacing the capacity of our existing training and workforce support facilities,” Adm. Kevin Lunday, the acting commandant of the Coast Guard, said in a video Monday. “To grow and train our force, we need more space.”
Top Stories This Week
The Coast Guard’s request said that the facility needs to be operational within a year and located within one of the 150 largest metropolitan areas within the U.S. It also mentioned that the livability index — an assessment that typically scores communities across the country in categories such as crime, affordability and other metrics — must be at least 50/100, an average score. It did not specify which index it was using.
Enlisted hopefuls currently attend a two-month boot camp in Cape May, New Jersey.
Earlier this year, the Coast Guard launched a massive restructuring campaign known as Force Design 2028. It cites decades of “chronic manning shortages at front-line units” that have hampered the service’s ability to complete its missions. Part of that initiative means the Coast Guard will increase its end-strength by 15,000 people by 2028. It currently has 76,000 members.
Earlier this month, as President Donald Trump’s administration continues its fatal attacks on alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean, the Coast Guard announced record cocaine seizures so far this year.
The service said that it has seized nearly 510,000 pounds of cocaine in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean since last October — more than triple its typical annual haul.
