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ITE1-E3

Information System Technician

E-1 to E-3 (Junior Enlisted) · Coast Guard

E1–E3E-4E-5E-6E-7E8–E9
HEADS UP

The IT striker's job is not to fix things yet — it's to demonstrate you are worth the A-school seat. The Petaluma class date goes to the non-rate whose PQS is signed deep, whose OIC endorsement is unambiguous, and who walks into the rating with a Network+ in progress or already earned. The shop is watching how you handle the boring work before they trust you with the interesting work.

The Honest MOS Read
IT striker (SR through SN, E-1 through E-3) is the probationary phase of what is one of the more technically demanding ratings in the Coast Guard. You came out of TRACEN Cape May after eight weeks of boot camp, and you either designated IT as your striker preference or were assigned based on aptitude. Either way, you are now in a command's IT shop — a sector, a district, a communications and information systems facility, or occasionally an afloat unit — as the most junior person in a space where every mistake potentially has cybersecurity or operational consequences. Your work is not glamorous and it is not supposed to be. You run cable and label ports. You log help-desk tickets. You image workstations under supervision and reset passwords after someone confirms they are who they say they are. You stand the duty-section rotations and the working parties that punctuate every Coastie's first year. You shadow qualified ITs on managed-switch configuration walkthroughs, Active Directory account audits, and DISA STIG compliance checks — not as the person doing the work, but as the person learning to see how the work is done. The A-school pipeline at TRACEN Petaluma, California is the gate. The IT A-school is competitive. Your chain of command has a limited number of class dates to fill each cycle, and the candidates who get them are the ones with documented PQS progress, clean conduct records, a physical fitness standard that is above the floor rather than sitting on it, and an OIC or supervisor endorsement that says this is someone the unit wants to keep investing in. The striker who waits for someone to hand them a study guide does not get endorsed over the striker who pulled the Network+ objectives on their own and started working through them. The DISA STIG world is one you need to begin understanding now. The IT rating lives in the DoD 8570.01-M and DoDD 8140.01 workforce framework — which means every IT in the Coast Guard's operational and administrative IT infrastructure is mapped to an Information Assurance Technical (IAT) work role and required to hold the corresponding baseline certification. At the entry level that means CompTIA Network+ and CompTIA Security+ are on your professional development road map from the day you hit the shop. The Network+ is the right starting point; it covers the OSI model, IP addressing, switching, routing, and troubleshooting fundamentals that the Petaluma A-school builds on. The IT3 who shows up to A-school having already covered the Network+ domain understands what the instructor is connecting to the real-world equipment in the lab. The IT3 who shows up cold is learning two things at once. The Coast Guard is a small service. The IT rating is a small rating. The ITs you work with as a striker at your first unit have a long memory, and they talk to the ITs at the next command you check in to. The standard you set during the striker phase — how you handle the detail, how you carry yourself in the server room, whether you ask good questions or just wait to be told what to do — travels with you in a way it does not in a larger branch. Start the reputation you want to have.
Career Arc
  • 01Boot camp complete (TRACEN Cape May, eight weeks). Reported to first command as a non-rated member striking for IT.
  • 02IT Rating PQS initiated on day one. The PQS is the formal qualification record that tracks you from non-rate to IT3; every line signed by a qualified IT is evidence of training for the A-school endorsement.
  • 03Help-desk ticket intake and basic workstation troubleshooting qualifications signed by the IT2 or IT1 within the first 60-90 days. Physical security procedures and server room access requirements signed off before you have unsupervised access to the equipment space.
  • 04CompTIA Network+ study in active progress. The non-rate who passes the exam before the A-school designation is officially endorsed is the one who gets the better endorsement letter.
  • 05A-school designation and class date at TRACEN Petaluma received. Dependent on OIC endorsement, PQS progress, conduct record, and fitness standard.
  • 06TRACEN Petaluma IT A-school complete. Report to first rated IT billet as IT3 (Petty Officer Third Class). The A-school duration and specific curriculum details — verify current course structure against NETC and CG Institute listings before citing publicly.
  • 07IT3 crow pinned. Advance via the Coast Guard Servicewide Examination (SWE) cycle under COMDTINST M1000-series. PQS lines from the striker phase were the foundation; the Petaluma training is the credential.
Common Screwups
  • ×Conduct incident — DUI, Article 92, unauthorized absence, or barracks-floor disciplinary action — during the striker phase. The IT shop evaluates you as a member before they evaluate you as a technician. A conduct incident as a striker removes the endorsement conversation before it starts and the command has no obligation to cut the A-school designation.
  • ×Unauthorized access or policy bypass in the IT shop. The server room and the IT infrastructure is a high-trust space. One intentional unauthorized access event — logging in as another user, connecting an unauthorized device to the network, accessing a system without authorization 'just to see' — ends the striker designation and potentially generates a serious incident report that follows the record forward.
  • ×Physical fitness failure. The PFT cycle for an E-1 through E-3 is not more forgiving because you are junior. Failing the PFT or drifting out of compliance with COMDTINST M1020.8 body composition standards during the striker phase signals to the chain of command that the self-discipline required for the technical work is not there yet. The A-school endorsement is harder to write honestly for that member.
  • ×Treating the PQS as a check-the-box exercise. Having lines signed matters. Having the IT2 sign lines because the non-rate actually demonstrated the tasks matters more. The OIC and the IT1 who write the endorsement have read the PQS; a PQS with rapid sign-off dates on complex tasks and no corresponding evidence of real work experience is something they notice.

A Day in the Life

  • 0530-0600Wake up, squared-away morning routine. Check the uniform before leaving the room — the first impression the IT shop has of a non-rate every morning is the 0800 formation uniform, not the 0900 workstation.
  • 0600-0700PT formation. Unit physical training — runs, circuit, or recovery depending on the weekly schedule. The IT non-rate is in the same formation as everyone else; no exemptions for being in a technical rating.
  • 0700-0800Hygiene, breakfast, uniform change as needed. In quarters by 0750 for the day's work brief from the IT2 or IT1.
  • 0800-0900Opening tasks: log into the help-desk ticketing system, review the overnight ticket queue with the IT3, confirm the day's tasks from the IT1's work plan. Shadow the IT3 on the morning status check of primary servers and network equipment.
  • 0900-1130Primary work block under supervision: structured cabling project, workstation imaging, help-desk ticket intake, or network documentation update — whatever the IT2 or IT1 has assigned. Ask one question at a time; do not interrupt a fault-isolation sequence because you thought of something.
  • 1130-1300Lunch. Working parties or duty-section details if assigned — the IT non-rate stands working parties like everyone else and does not ask for an exception because there is IT work to do.
  • 1300-1430PQS study with the IT2. Walk through the PQS section the IT2 has scheduled for the week; ask the questions the PQS task raises while the IT2 can answer them with the equipment in front of you.
  • 1430-1600Continued work block: close out help-desk tickets with resolution notes, complete the cable labeling documentation, finish any workstation imaging task. Brief the IT2 on what was completed and what was not — what is left for tomorrow.
  • 1600-1700End-of-day check: uniform and personal gear squared away, workspace cleaned, equipment properly stored, server room door secured. Check the next-day duty schedule.
  • 1800-1900Dinner. Personal time begins. On off-duty evenings, the study guide comes out within the hour.
  • 1900-2000CompTIA Network+ study — 45 to 60 minutes, focused on the current domain topic. Practice exam question set at the end to check retention. Write down the questions you got wrong and why.
  • 2000-2200Personal time, physical recovery, call home. Lights out by 2200 — the IT1 reads the 0600 formation closely and the non-rate who drags into PT looking like they were up until 0200 is not the non-rate the IT2 wants to take into the server room that morning.

Weekly Cadence

The IT striker's week runs on the shop's work plan, not on the striker's preferences. Monday through Friday the rhythm is physical training in the morning, the shop work plan in the morning-to-afternoon block, and personal professional development in the off-duty hours. The IT2 or IT1 sets the task priority for each day; the striker's job is to execute the assigned tasks completely and accurately and report back clearly. The week's weight falls on whatever the shop's active project or compliance deadline is. If the unit is in a STIG compliance cycle, the week looks like systematic workstation and server audits under supervision — the striker is learning how to run the STIG Viewer tool and read a STIG benchmark document while the IT3 executes. If there is a cabling project, the week looks like a lot of cable runs, continuity tests, and documentation updates. If the help-desk queue is heavy, the week looks like ticket intake and first-line resolution practice under the IT3's watch. There is no typical week; there is whatever the IT1 needs done to keep the shop running. The one constant the striker controls is the off-duty study time. The Network+ study session, the PQS review before the next IT2 walkthrough, the Petaluma-bound reading — those happen in the hours the shop cannot fill. The IT striker who treats the off-duty evenings as earned recovery time and nothing else is the striker whose Petaluma class date comes six months later than it needed to.

Key Skills — How to Drill Each

  1. 01
    Map the unit's physical network infrastructure — routers, switches, firewalls, wireless access points, patch panels, server room rack layout — to the specific ports and closets that each workstation connects through.
    The first week you hit the shop, ask the IT2 for the network documentation and spend time physically walking the closets before you try to read the diagrams. Labels on cables and patch panels are only useful if you know what is at both ends. Pull up the switch port status display on the managed switch in your main closet and match what you see in the interface to the physical ports — this is how you learn to read network documentation against physical reality. The IT2 who can hand you a work order and trust you to find the right closet and the right port is the one who starts taking you into the server room for the real work.
  2. 02
    Handle a standard help-desk ticket correctly — gather the information the IT2 needs, log it accurately, escalate without guessing at a fix outside your current qualification level.
    Develop a five-point ticket intake routine: affected user, affected system, error message or symptom verbatim, impact on mission (is this one workstation or is the command's entire print infrastructure down), and what the user has already tried. Resist the impulse to guess at a fix and tell the user you fixed it. A problem you described accurately is one the IT2 can diagnose without having to interview the user all over again. The ticket that reads 'user said network was slow, I checked the cable, it looked fine' is not a ticket — it is a note. Build the habit of writing resolution notes that a different IT three months from now could use to solve the same problem.
  3. 03
    Perform a CompTIA Network+ study session of at least 45-60 minutes on every off-duty day, working through OSI model, subnetting, switching fundamentals, and troubleshooting methodology.
    The Network+ domain is organized around five to seven major topic areas depending on the exam version — network fundamentals, infrastructure, operations, security, and troubleshooting. Work through them in order, not by jumping to the topics you find interesting. The subnetting section is where most self-studiers slow down or skip; do not skip it. The ability to read an IP addressing scheme and identify which devices are on the same subnet is fundamental to every network troubleshooting task you will do as an IT3. Put a practice exam on a weekly schedule and track your score by domain so you know where the gaps are.
  4. 04
    Perform structured cable termination and labeling tasks under a qualified IT — terminate Cat6 keystones, test continuity, label both ends of runs legibly, and document port assignments in the unit's network documentation.
    The 568-A / 568-B wiring standard is not optional; it is the building infrastructure standard for DoD communications closets. Learn it before you touch a keystone. Continuity testing is the step that tells you whether the termination was done correctly before you close the wall plate — always test before you label and document. The label convention at your unit is whatever the IT1 has established; find out what it is before you start labeling, because re-labeling a cabling run is one of the more tedious rework jobs in the IT shop and the IT1 will remember who created it.
  5. 05
    Identify basic network connectivity faults by working through the OSI model from physical layer to application layer — check the physical connection, switch port status, IP address, default gateway, DNS resolution, and application-layer configuration before declaring a system unreachable.
    Develop the diagnostic discipline of not skipping layers. The most common help-desk mistakes involve treating a physical-layer problem (bad cable, wrong switch port assignment) as an application-layer problem, or vice versa. The discipline is: physical first (is the cable plugged in, is the port lit, what does the link indicator say), then network layer (does the device have the correct IP, can it ping the default gateway), then transport and application (can it reach a DNS server, does the application service start). The IT2 will notice when you bring her a fully-worked physical-to-application diagnostic versus a blank 'the network is down' report.
  6. 06
    Maintain the IT Rating PQS with consistent progress — one to two lines per week signed by a qualified IT — and use it as a structured learning record, not just a signature collection.
    When you ask an IT2 to sign a PQS line, come with evidence of the task, not just a request for a signature. For a line that covers account administration, that means you demonstrated the AD task. For a line that covers help-desk procedures, it means you have been logging tickets under observation for a period of time. The PQS that advances at roughly one to two lines per week across the full signature period looks like consistent supervised learning; the PQS that accumulates five or six signatures in a single week looks like a favor — and your OIC's endorsement letter will reflect which one it appears to be.

Manuals & References — What Chapters Matter

  • COMDTINST M5500.13 (current series) — Coast Guard Information and Life-Cycle Management Manual
    This is the governing publication for CG IT systems management, information assurance policy, and network administration standards. As a striker you do not need to read it cover to cover, but you need to know it exists, that it is the authority the IT1 refers to when they describe what is and is not authorized on the network, and that policy violations against it are the categories of mistake that generate serious incident reports. Verify the current series letter against the CG Directives System before citing any specific provision by number.
  • DoD 8570.01-M — Information Assurance Workforce Improvement Program and DoDD 8140.01 — Cyberspace Workforce Management
    These two documents govern the baseline certification requirements for every IT professional in the Department of Defense, including the Coast Guard. At your level, the practical takeaway is: the IT rating is mapped to IAT work roles that require CompTIA Network+ and Security+ as baseline certifications, and your career advancement depends on holding the right cert at the right time. Understanding why the certifications are required — workforce assurance for IT systems handling DoD data — is the context that makes the study feel less like bureaucratic compliance and more like professional credentialing.
  • IT Rating Performance Qualification Standard (PQS) — Coast Guard Institute
    Pull this from the Coast Guard Institute on day one and keep it current. The PQS is the formal qual record that tracks you from non-rate to IT3; it structures what the qualified ITs in your shop are expected to observe and sign off. Review the entire list early so you know what categories of tasks are ahead and can structure your supervised experience to cover them methodically rather than accidentally. The PQS for IT is organized around the technical tasks that the Petaluma A-school builds on; covering it thoroughly in the striker phase means you arrive at A-school with context the instruction will reinforce.
  • CompTIA Network+ Exam Objectives (current version, publicly available at comptia.org)
    The Network+ certification is the technical foundation the entire IT career path is built on. At the striker level, working through the exam objectives is the structured way to build the vocabulary and concepts the qualified ITs in your shop are using every day. The current objectives document is available as a free download from CompTIA's website; it maps exactly what the exam covers and in what proportion, which is also a map of the topics the Petaluma A-school covers as foundational curriculum.
  • COMDTINST M1020.8 (current revision) — Coast Guard Weight and Body Fat Standards
    Physical fitness and body composition compliance are prerequisite for the A-school endorsement. Read the current standards and run the numbers against your own data; do not wait for the PFT to discover you are outside compliance. The IT shop's endorsement letter for A-school cannot honestly assert readiness for the rating if the member is flagged for physical fitness standards during the same period.
  • COMDTINST M1000-series — Coast Guard Personnel Manual
    The umbrella personnel publication for leave, liberty, advancement, conduct standards, and the administrative life of a Coast Guard member at any rank. Read the advancement sections for E-1 through E-4 early — understand how the Servicewide Exam works, what the final multiple formula includes, and how the cutting score is published — so you understand what you are working toward after A-school. Knowing the advancement system is not 'looking too far ahead'; it is the context that makes the PQS and certification work feel coherent rather than arbitrary.

Standards — How to Hit Each

  • IT A-school class date at TRACEN Petaluma secured within the first 12-18 months, dependent on PQS progress, OIC endorsement, conduct record, and current class availability.
    This is the controlling milestone for the striker phase. Work backward from it: the endorsement requires the PQS at a depth that demonstrates readiness, which requires consistent supervised experience, which requires showing up to work every day as the person the IT1 wants to take into the server room. There is no hack for this. The Petaluma class date is the result of performing well on every metric that is visible to the chain of command.
  • CompTIA Network+ study in active progress — practice exam scores improving each week, with a target exam date set before or immediately following A-school.
    Set a target date for the exam that is either the month before you report to Petaluma (if you have the time) or the month after A-school graduation. Study daily — 45 to 60 minutes is enough if it is focused and consistent. Track practice exam scores by domain so you know where the time needs to go; subnetting, OSI model, and wireless standards are the areas where most candidates underperform on the first try. The IT3 who arrives at their first rated billet with the Network+ already done does not need to fit it into a workload that also includes A-school aftermath.
  • PQS at a pace of one to two lines signed per week by a qualified IT, with the substantive technical lines — network documentation, help-desk procedure, physical security, account administration under supervision — covered before the A-school endorsement is written.
    Bring a task to the IT2 when you have actually done the task, not when you want a line signed. The IT2 who qualifies you on help-desk ticket intake should have observed you handling tickets under guidance. The IT1 who writes your endorsement will ask the IT2 what the PQS progress represents in terms of real supervised experience; make sure the answer supports the endorsement.
  • Coast Guard PFT passed on every cycle; body composition compliant with COMDTINST M1020.8 at all times during the striker phase.
    The physical fitness standard for an IT striker is the same standard every CG member holds. Do not let the technical nature of the work make you treat the PFT as an administrative annoyance. Make it a training event you prepare for, not a test you walk into cold. The IT1 who watches a striker fail the PFT is not thinking about the striker's network skills; they are thinking about whether the member is organized and self-disciplined enough to be trusted with a STIG compliance program.
  • Zero security incidents or unauthorized access findings attributable to your actions in the shop during the striker phase.
    The standard is not 'avoid getting caught.' The standard is 'never do anything that would constitute an incident in the first place.' Before you touch any system, ask whether you have explicit authorization for the specific action. Before you log into any account, confirm it is yours and the session is authorized. Before you carry any device into the server room or the equipment space, confirm it is on the authorized equipment list. The discipline of asking the question before acting is the habit that protects you from the incident that ends the striker designation.

Technical Mistakes — Concrete Consequences

  • Touching production network equipment — managed switches, routers, servers, domain controllers — without a qualified IT present and without a documented work order or change ticket.
    A single misconfigured switch port can disable the entire NIPR segment for a watchfloor. The change log records who touched the equipment last; there is no ambiguity about accountability. As a non-rate, you have zero authorization to make configuration changes to production equipment unilaterally — but the consequence of the outage is not lessened by your rank.
  • Resetting a user's password or unlocking an account without verifying the requester's identity through the unit's established authentication procedure.
    The help desk is the most common attack surface for social engineering. 'She sounded like the XO's secretary' is not an identity verification procedure. The IT shop is the identity management authority for the command's Active Directory environment; an unauthorized account action that enables unauthorized access is an incident report with your name on the ticket.
  • Connecting a personal device — USB drive, personal phone, personal laptop — to any government network port or government computer without written authorization.
    One unauthorized device connected to a DoD network is an IT security incident requiring reporting under COMDTINST M5500-series requirements. The incident report names the person who connected the device. As a striker, that incident report ends the A-school designation and potentially results in administrative action.
  • Closing a help-desk ticket with 'fixed' in the resolution field and no documentation of what was actually done.
    The ticket is the audit trail and the institutional memory for the shop. A ticket that reads 'fixed' with no resolution notes is invisible to the IT2 who inherits the same problem from the same user three weeks later. The audit trail from a future STIG compliance review will also show the history of work on a given system; resolution notes that say nothing provide no evidence of compliant maintenance.
  • Discussing network architecture details, IP addressing schemes, server names or roles, or open vulnerability findings in any unsecured environment — including text messages to friends, phone calls in public spaces, or social media.
    The command's IT infrastructure posture is operationally sensitive. What the network looks like, where the gaps are, what systems are on the POAM — that information is not for public discussion. An OPSEC incident at the striker level is not just an embarrassment; it generates a finding against the command's security posture and the IT shop bears accountability for it.

Career Decisions at This Rank

  • Push for the earliest possible A-school class date versus accepting a later date and building more shop experience first.
    The default answer is push for the earliest class date the endorsement and PQS record support. More shop experience before Petaluma is genuinely useful — you get more out of the A-school instruction if you have already seen the equipment the school covers — but there is a diminishing return. A striker who has been in the shop for 18 months without a class date is a retention problem for the command and a question mark for any future senior IT who reads the service record. The A-school designation is the goal; anything that extends the timeline unnecessarily is a career cost, not a development benefit.
  • Sit the CompTIA Network+ before A-school versus waiting until after.
    Take the exam before you report to Petaluma if the study is there. The Network+ at the striker level is not a SWE factor; it does not appear in the final multiple calculation. What it does is demonstrate professional initiative, it makes the Petaluma instruction easier to absorb, and it means you arrive at your first IT3 billet with the certification already done rather than fitting it into a workload that also includes a new unit, new systems, and the Security+ requirement that starts the clock as an IT3. The exam is a few hundred dollars and a half-day test slot; it is a reasonable personal investment during the striker phase.
  • Request a specific unit type — sector IT shop, afloat, district information management office — for the first rated billet.
    The Coast Guard's IT rating spans sector communications and IT shops, afloat C4I divisions on National Security Cutters and Offshore Patrol Cutters, district information management offices, and specialized facilities. As an IT3 striking into the rating, you will not have full control over your first rated billet — the CGPSC detailing process and your first SWE score together determine the assignment. What you can do is have the conversation with your IT1 and the district enlisted detailer about which unit type builds the broadest IT foundation. The consensus in the rating is that a sector or district IT shop early in the career gives you a wider range of system types and a more direct STIG compliance learning environment than a small boat station, where the IT shop may have only one or two billets. The afloat assignment comes with genuine sea time — which matters for the cutterman device — but it is a specific flavor of IT work and the shore-side learning environment is different.

How the Seat Varies by Unit Type

  • Sector communications and information systems (CIS) shop
    The most common first-billet environment for a new IT striker and one of the better learning environments in the rating. A sector IT shop typically runs a small team — one to three ITs across all paygrades — supporting the sector's operational networks, workstations, servers, and communications systems. You are exposed to the full range of administrative IT work: AD management, STIG compliance, patch management, help-desk, and physical infrastructure. The IT1 and IT2 are your daily mentors; the OIC of the sector or the operations section chief is the senior authority. The work pace is steady rather than surge-oriented.
  • District information management office or communications area master station (CAMS)
    A larger, more specialized IT shop. District IT offices and CAMS-level facilities handle CG enterprise network infrastructure, telecommunications backbone systems, and broader cybersecurity programs across multiple subordinate commands. The IT strikers in these environments are exposed to higher-complexity systems earlier — but they are also further down the task list from the senior ITs and may spend more time on support tasks than hands-on technical work. The learning ceiling is higher; the on-ramp to independent work may be slower because of the complexity and the supervision requirements.
  • Afloat unit — National Security Cutter or Offshore Patrol Cutter C4I division
    A distinctive IT environment. Afloat IT work runs under the cutter's operational tempo — deployments, drills, underway maintenance windows, and a closer physical working relationship with the electronics technician (ET) and operations specialist (OS) communities who share the C4I spaces. The IT non-rate on a cutter is doing sea time that counts toward the Permanent Cutterman device, which is a career credential. The technical work is narrower in scope than a shore IT shop — you are maintaining the cutter's specific C4I systems rather than a diverse enterprise network — but the operational urgency is higher. Systems failures at sea have no IT shop backup; the fix happens with what is on the cutter.
  • Small boat station
    IT presence at small boat stations is typically one billet — sometimes an IT3 or IT2 as the sole rated IT at the station, supported by the sector IT shop for escalation. As a striker at a small boat station, you have limited supervision options and a limited equipment footprint compared to a sector or district IT shop. The work is real — the station's network, workstations, and communications infrastructure need maintenance and compliance management — but the learning diversity is narrower. If you end up striking at a small boat station, develop the habit of making contact with the sector IT shop for mentorship beyond what is available at the station.

What Good Looks Like at This Rank

The good IT striker is the non-rate the IT2 reaches for when a network documentation update needs to be done correctly, not quickly. The cables are labeled at both ends, the port assignments are documented in the network diagram, and the IT2 can hand the result to the IT1 without a second-pass cleanup. This striker's PQS is not padded — every signed line represents a task that was actually performed under supervision, and when the IT1 reads the endorsement draft, the PQS and the work history are consistent with each other. What the good IT striker is doing in the hours after the duty day is not a mystery: the Network+ study guide is on the table, the practice exam scores are trending up, and the target test date is on the calendar. The striker does not wait for someone to schedule the study time. The OIC writes the endorsement in about twenty minutes because everything that needs to go in it is already documented in the PQS, the EER block, the qualification record, and the conduct folder — all clean, all consistent with the letter the OIC wants to sign. The single thing that separates the striker who gets the Petaluma class date in the first available cycle from the one who waits another six months is the quality of the unsupervised work ethic. The IT1 and IT2 cannot follow you home to make sure you study. They watch how you handle the boring tasks in the shop and extrapolate. The non-rate who reads the change ticket carefully before touching the switch, who writes complete resolution notes in every ticket, and who asks the right question before making a move rather than after is demonstrating the discipline that the rating actually requires — in a field where a careless change at 0200 can bring down the watchfloor network and the investigation will not care about your paygrade.

Preview — The Next Rank

IT3 (E-4) is the paygrade where the training wheels come off. You have the rating badge from Petaluma, you have the crow on your sleeve, and the IT shop now expects you to close tickets, execute STIG compliance checks, and sign your name on maintenance records without a qualified IT physically watching every move. The IT2 is still the escalation authority — the ceiling above which you are expected to ask rather than act — but the first-responder work is yours. The technical credential clock starts immediately. CompTIA Security+ CE is the DoD 8570.01-M IAT Level II baseline certification that the IT3 billet requires, and the IT3 who does not hold it is an unfulfilled billet requirement. You should be walking into your first IT3 job with Network+ done and Security+ in active preparation. The exam fee and the study time are the price of entry into the rated workforce; the IT1 who sees a new IT3 who has already scheduled the Security+ exam is starting from a different baseline than the one who has to have the conversation about why it matters. The Servicewide Exam for IT2 is the other clock. The March and August SWE cycles are the gate to E-5. The bibliography, the military requirements study, the EER mark trend — all of it feeds into the SWE final multiple that determines whether you make the advancement list. Building the study habit now, in the striker phase, is significantly easier than trying to build it after you have added IT3 job responsibilities, watch standing, and the Security+ prep to the same 24 hours.
FAQ

IT E1-E3 — Frequently Asked Questions

Q01What does a E1-E3 IT (Information System Technician) actually do?
You came out of TRACEN Cape May after eight weeks and reported to a sector, a district, or a communications and information systems (CIS) facility as a non-rated Coastie striking for IT.
Q02What's the most important thing to know as a E1-E3 IT?
The IT striker's job is not to fix things yet — it's to demonstrate you are worth the A-school seat.
Q03What does a typical day look like for a E1-E3 IT?
Time-blocked day at the E1-E3 IT rank tier: 0530-0600 Wake up, squared-away morning routine. Check the uniform before leaving the room — the first impression the IT shop has of a non-rate every morning is the 0800 formation uniform, not the 0900 workstation, 0600-0700 PT formation. Unit physical training — runs, circuit, or recovery depending on the weekly schedule. The IT non-rate is in the same formation as everyone else; no exemptions for being in a technical rating, 0700-0800 Hygiene, breakfast, uniform change as needed. In quarters by 0750 for the day's work brief from the IT2 or IT1,…
Q04What mistakes get E1-E3 IT soldiers fired or relieved?
Conduct incident — DUI, Article 92, unauthorized absence, or barracks-floor disciplinary action — during the striker phase. The IT shop evaluates you as a member before they evaluate you as a technician. A conduct incident as a striker removes the endorsement conversation before it starts and the command has no obligation to cut the A-school designation; Unauthorized access or policy bypass in the IT shop. The server room and the IT infrastructure is a high-trust space.…
Q05What career decisions matter most at the E1-E3 IT rank tier?
Push for the earliest possible A-school class date versus accepting a later date and building more shop experience first — The default answer is push for the earliest class date the endorsement and PQS record support. More shop experience before Petaluma is genuinely useful — you get more out of the A-school instruction if you have already seen the equipment the school covers — but there is a diminishing return.…
Q06What's next after E1-E3 for a IT (Information System Technician) in the Coast Guard?
IT3 (E-4) is the paygrade where the training wheels come off.
Q07What manuals and regulations does a E1-E3 IT need to know cold?
COMDTINST M5500.13 (current series) — Coast Guard Information and Life-Cycle Management Manual. The governing publication for CG IT systems management, information assurance policy, and network administration standards. Verify the current revision against the CG Directives System before citing by number.; DoD 8570.01-M — Information Assurance Workforce Improvement Program. The DoD-wide baseline certification requirement framework; at this tier,…

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Published by the Honest MOS Editorial DeskVerified against DoD/.gov sourcesUpdated May 2026Editorial standards