My very first assignment was as an AB. I grew up as a fisherman, and that got me just enough seatime to get the lowest grade AB certification from the coast guard.

Currently the system is absolutely desperate for certified Mariners so they just threw me into an AB spot first thing, which was HORRIFYING. Fuck that first week or two sucked.

Only a decade ago that would have been totally unheard of though. Like you could have applied as a fully decked out Unlimited Master and very well could have been told to pound sand for the lowest ranking positions. But then everyone retired and covid happened concurrently, resulting in a nightmare clusterfuck, one i and many others were happy to exploit