Emily and Terry suggested a nice place for Friday evenings where they have live music. I thought this meant that they would have a live band. I was wrong. It was two guys on guitar playing folksy music. It wasn't quite what I thought it would be, but it made for a much more relaxing atmosphere. So here I am a 2LT hanging out with a bunch of CPTs (two ranks above me). They were all pretty cool. I was listening to Terry tell a story about a 25 mile hike he and some buds went on in Alaska that had to do with the book "Into the Wild" or something like that. Terry can tell stories very well and just keeps embellishing on different points. This is probably the first time I have ever really heard Terry say more than a few words. Not to say that he is bashful, its just that I haven't really had the chance to hang out with Emily and him since they got married. Before they were married he was overseas for a year. Before that I heard good stories about him for some time while they were dating and we got to meet him a few times.
The active Army is an interesting place, sometimes I wonder why I didn't go into it full time. Oh wait, I thought I could make more money being a programmer. While this is close to true, I never took into account all of the untaxable monetary benefits that come with being in the military. There is an allowance you get for housing, an allowance for food, and travel pay. If you are away from your spouse, you get family separation. If you are in a combat zone, you get hazardous duty pay. And the best thing is, if you are in a deployment overseas, then your base pay is also non-taxable. So really a 2LT that is married makes quite a bit of money. In fact, they make a lot of money. Fresh out of college, do you think you could find a job where you are making over $$$? It's possible that you could, but most people don't make that much fresh out of college, they have to build a few years experience and change jobs a couple of times first.