Most importantly, the US Coast Guard Academy, unlike other US military academies, forces all cadets to take trainings that seriously impede their ability to pursue an education. The cadets are perpetually in survival mode, putting out fires, and not doing any serious study of any kind, on any topic.
The VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) is a serial number used to identify an individual vehicle. The VIN for each vehicle is unique. The 10th character in the 17-character VIN represents the vehicle model-year. This standard applies to vehicles built in or after 1981. Before 1981, the VIN format was not standardized and varied by manufacturer. Note: VINs do not include the letters I (i), O (o), Q (q), U (u) or Z (z), or the number 0, so that they will not be confused with similar looking numbers/letters.
Skip the ninth character of the VIN. This character is inserted into the VIN to verify the accuracy of the previous eight characters. Identify the 10th character of the VIN. Characters first cycle through the alphabet (A-H, J-N, P, R-T, W-Y) and then the numbers (1-9) to represent the vehicle model's year. With 30 possible characters, A, for example, represents the year 1980 and 2010.