I'm a current military linguist and it's been an absolutely fantastic career choice for me. For just a bit of background info, I graduated from A&M in '08 and had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do. I spent literally an entire year working a really pointless job while I researched what kind of options I had in order to start a career in the Intelligence Community. In 2010 I enlisted as a Cryptologic Language Analyst in the Air Force.

So the reason why I'm posting this is to provide a little bit of general information to any one else who has ever been interested in working an Intel job or learning a foreign language but not really known a good path to get into that type of work.

Here are the main pros of the job

- The pay is awesome, especially if you graduated as a Liberal Arts major like myself. My salary is comprised of many different parts that all add up to somewhere between 60-70k per year now that I'm in my 4th year in. (If you are single when you join your compensation will be slightly less and you will spend 1.5 years or more in dorms)

- You're going to learn a language that you otherwise would have no shot at learning on your own. I can't get into specifics of languages on an open forum but just watch the news and you'll have a good idea of what languages you have a chance of learning based on current hot spots. Additionally you get to learn that new language in Monterey, California which is one of the most beautiful places in the country. Meaning that if you enlist for 6 years about 1/3 of your enlistment will be spent as a student working M-F 8-4 hours in Monterey, California.

- You will get a TS/SCI clearance and you will work directly with the civilian Intelligence Community making the kind of contacts needed to make this a civilian career after your military career is over.

- The benefits, GI Bill, Tuition Assistance AND the Hazlewood Act provide the means for additional education for either you or your children. (there are some specifics for transferring benefits)

-There is the opportunity for stability in terms of where you live. My career can really only route me through 3 duty locations and I can choose to stay at them for a long time. There are people who have spent 10+ years at the main cryptologic centers which has provided stability for their spouses and children which isn't the case for some other military jobs. Also, for ground linguists (1N3's) deployments are mostly by volunteer, meaning again more stability and control over your life.

Cons of the Job

- The actual work can be very difficult and the work hours can/probably/sometimes are long and correspond with different time zones than the one you live in.

- You have to be in the military. For some this is the ultimate con, and I understand that. I was very hesitant to join the military for this reason.


By posting this I'm not trying to actively recruit linguists (the AF recruits plenty without my help) but rather to put some information out there on a career field that offers some pretty interesting training and experience. If anyone has any questions I'll do my best to answer them.

Are you in Fort Meade? NSA?

I work with a ton of linguists who actually get to do some really interesting work while deployed.

[This message has been edited by Gator2_01 (edited 7/19/2014 4:29p).]

I was hoping my post would get some responses from some people interested in more info but maybe the military board isn't the best for that because it doesn't get that much traffic.


Although the previous posters did bring up some interesting points. If becoming a linguist is something that you are really interested in you should "shop around" because there are pros and cons to what each branch can offer their linguists. The Air Force even has Airborne Linguists that deploy very often and in exchange they get to wear flight suits.

An important piece of advice I can give here is that if you do contact a recruiter there is a good chance that they won't have ANY idea what a linguist is or what we do. So find a way to contact an actual linguist in that service if you are truly interested because they will be able to give you more accurate information and won't bull**** you with what you want to hear.

There are boring and bad linguist assignments. I just got done with one of them. But the pros in terms of the skills/contacts you pick up definitely outweigh the cons of working a bad assignment for a couple of years. Plus if you stand out from your peers there are great assignments there for the taking (i.e. why I was chosen to go back to Monterey to teach)

[This message has been edited by AggieEP (edited 7/19/2014 7:41p).]

Thanks for the post! I wish you could speak to my high school students.

TTT for Pirate04

Thanks! My uncle is retired AF and was a linguist for much of his career. Of course, at the time, it was important for him to learn Russian. He also taught at the Academy toward the end of his career.

Intelligence is an area I am very interested in, as I said on my thread, I would like to eventually work for the State Dept, either as a civilian or an Officer (should I make a long commitment). I have always had a passion for foreign relations. I was a Lib Arts major also, with nearly 6 years of French.

Thank you again for this information.

I was interested in your post. My son is entering his 3rd year at Texas State. Changed from pre-physical therapy to psychology when he couldn't handle the math and science. Minoriing in forensic psychology and talking about going to FBI. I don't think the FBI typically hires right out of college so I've been wanting him to consider enlisting after graduation but with an MOS/AFSC that would help lead to the FBI. He was scheduled to take Arabic this semester but we encouraged him to change it to Spanish. Have heard from some of my customers how difficult Arabic is and thought taking in college would be a recipe for disaster. Had thought about military language schools. No one is better than the military at training. They can teach a monkey to fly if they have enough time.

I would like to communicate further off line if you willing. How would I contact you? Tried a PM but didn't go.

Ugh. Reading this depresses me. I was supposed to ship out May 4th, 2010 as a crypto linguist in the AF. Instead, I ended up in the hospital 5 days before and found out I had Crohns disease.

I didn't go in wanting to be a linguist. I found out I was colorblind at MEPS and had very few options besides secretary positions. The DLAB was a pain, but I scored a 128 so I was pretty excited.

Not being able to serve still sucks to think about now and then. However, I did meet my wife a month after I ended up in the hospital and we now have a beautiful 3 month old girl. Guess things work out differently than we plan sometimes.

I was told a few times by my recruiter, a few people at MEPS and a retired Lt.Col. that I could use my DLAB scores to help get a job with the FED doing the same thing but I could never find any info.

Wow, the AF learned you a new language? The Army won't do that unless you go SOF. They hire plenty of 09L's and I've worked with both TICO's and they have the absolute worst Soldiers in the Army. They serve a very specific purpose that not just anybody can do but they have no concept of how to be Soldiers.

ttt for the new grads over the holidays that might be interested in hearing more about the career.

And in response to Age fan Grunt, I think it is inappropriate to judge all 09L's as bad soldiers. I've met almost exclusively great ones and what they contribute to mission accomplishment is invaluable.

I was a DSO for a number of years and loved it. Spent my entire career as a 25th ios troop. Which I learned today was the single deadliest unit in the military.


https://medium.com/war-is-boring/u-s-air-force-intel-unit-helped-kill-1-200-people-d335ccf61cd0

Thanks for the link Talon, that's pretty unique to spend all of your time in as a DSO. At least now the pipeline sends a vast majority of 1A8's down the RJ path first.

I was one of the last to go from basic through the program. I was pulled out of general linguist pool at basic training and sent to DC for a year and a half. Didn't get back in the fold until San Angelo. By the time I got there, I looked like a hippie and couldn't March to save my life. We didn't have phases in DC and were pretty much left alone by big blue.

Went to a number of SERE programs, advanced beatings, etc. then sent to Okinawa for a few years. Ended my career at Ft. Bragg.

Did more as a Ssgt than most do in a career.

TTT for the New School year

Aggie fan grunt needs to chill out.

EP, if you are still here do you think you can help me out with something? I need to have something in Arabic Translated if you don't mind.

What flavor of Arabic? It comes in about ten different dialects depending on point of origin. Is it something you don't want to post on an open forum? If it's OK to post it I'll give you a gist of what it says.

AggieEP, thanks for continuing to post on this subject.

Another superb opportunity for AF linguists is to serve with the 55th ECG on EC-130 Compass Call aircraft.

55th ECG at Davis Monthan AFB
55th ECG Wikipedia
55th ECG linguist helping in local schools
EC-130 air refueling (FYI only)

It's been almost a year and a half since I bumped this thread but I figured I would again because May graduations are coming up and perhaps there are some soon to be grads who don't know what to do with their lives.

If anyone has specific questions about life as a linguist in the Air Force I'll do my best to answer. I've been working in the training pipeline for 3 years now so I can give you a pretty good idea of what's going on right now.

Now 6.5 years into my AF career, enlisting as a linguist is the best thing I could have done for my own aspirations and in order to take care of my family.

AggieEP, this is great to see you offering insights for a very under the radar position. My brother was an airborne crypto and after DLI and tech, ended up at Offutt AFB. He's out now, but him and his friends easily had the transferrable skills to get jobs in defense contracting and analyst roles in all industries. Best wishes!

For those looking towards post-military careers as linguists, the NSA is always hiring and is particularly interested in people with experience and security clearances. FWIW.

Thanks for your insight in this. I graduated with a Ba in applied linguistics and a minor in foreign languages, and am looking into the cryptologic linguist for the Air Force as an option, but I have no family in the military and practically no knowledge of military life for a family. I have my wife and two daughters, and when I picture serving in the military, I picture being gone 6 months out of the year at a time. Is that realistic for the airborne crypto linguist? What was it like for you and what was it like for your family, if you don't mind me asking that.

......so also look into the options in the post immediately above yours, too.

Ag fan grunt said:

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Wow, the AF learned you a new language? The Army won't do that unless you go SOF. They hire plenty of 09L's and I've worked with both TICO's and they have the absolute worst Soldiers in the Army. They serve a very specific purpose that not just anybody can do but they have no concept of how to be Soldiers.

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This isn't accurate. The Army's 35P (Crypto Linguist) and 35M (Human Intelligence Collector) specialties are both language dependent and initial entry Soldiers are provided language training at DLI. 35M (previously 97E) was language dependent for years but during the GWOT was changed to language capable. It only just recently changed back to language dependent. People enlisting in active duty as a 35M starting FY18 should be getting DLI as part of their training pipeline. That being said, both specialties are difficult to progress in at the moment and I'd recommend someone looking for a career vs job skill talk to other services. I can't keep my 35Ms in the Army right now and I don't blame them for leaving or changing MOS.

I would still need to start with the AF for the experience on my resume right? Or are there entry level options that will also train you?

It depends what job you're looking for. If you have skills they need, you've got a shot. I know civilians who've been hired by the NSA, for example, without previous security clearance and without experience strictly on their language abilities. Certainly having appropriate military background would help, but the only way to find out is to apply.....

If you're worried about deploying, the large majority of Navy linguists will be on a shore billet for their first enlistment. I'd be happy to provide more info about the Navy linguists tomorrow. A lot is probably very similar to the AF.