by assateague » Mon Jul 15, 2013 7:17 pm
It's not that impressive really. When I was at MEPS, joining the Army, I had finished up my testing and selected my MOS. The only thing left was to decide which language I wanted. Based on scores, I had to pick between Korean, Mandarin, or Arabic. This was in February of 1991, and Desert Storm was still in full swing. I determined right then and there that I did not want any part of speaking a language from that part of the world (Arabic), and knew I could never get stationed in China, so chose Korean. I don't have enough hands and feet to count the number of my buddies who were in the Arabic school who were given six figure salaries by petroleum companies at 25 and 26, the second they got out of the military. And then most of these same guys went on to get even higher six figure salaries as intel support and intel translators with security clearances starting on September 12, 2001. Granted, they had to travel back and forth a lot, but dammit, getting paid $120,000 tax free money for 8 months worth of work, over and over and over again makes me a little jealous, I must admit. Some of those guys did the 8 month rotation for 4 and 5 years straight, and there's not a lot to spend your money on in Basra, Abu Ghraib, or Bagram.
I just wasn't thinking that afternoon, about all the money that comes from the middle east, so I chose very poorly. Oh well.