You don't sleep in the mud. You learn to perform a real world mission, that you'll actually perform. All that soldier'n bull**** is fine, when you're twenty-something, but you have to think about when you're thirty-something, or forty-something. The Coast Guard is something you can still be doing at forty-something. There aren't many forty-something cav scouts, or grunts out there in the field. Even if you don't plan on making it a career, those few years of punishment will remind you all those good times, years later.
I was an infantryman for 13 years and I can attest that that life only gets harder as you get older and I can also attest to the physical punishment that I'm paying for, now that I'm almost 50.
Here's the best part, unlike the Army, Navy and the Air Force, the Coast Guard academy doesn't require a congressional appointment. If you have the SAT score, you're in.
You oughta research it, anyway. **** being a bullet stopper.