Thank you AROTC-Dad. My DS has taken several Russian courses as part of his minor (while contracted) and took the regulation provided by you (AROTC-Dad) to his PMS. His PMS was able to confirm the CLIP-B and told him it was $200 per credit hour (with a B or greater). My DS is now receiving a much-welcomed $1200 and he will receive more when completing this semester. The cap is $3K per academic year so this is a huge perk for those studying a critical language. The information he received also seems to indicate "cultural classes" in those languages may also qualify. Can't thank AROTC-Dad and this board for all the help...bear in mind, my DS is at a pretty "established" ROTC/Corps of Cadets and at no point did anyone key-in on the fact that the CLIP-B was even available. There is so much to gain by sharing information and would love to know from (cb7893) what the other incentives are once commissioned. Thank you!!
First off, congratulations to your DS. That is a great testimonial about SAF in general and
@AROTC-dad in particular.
https://www.hrc.army.mil/content/Foreign Language Proficiency Bonus
https://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/payentitlements/Pay-Tables/FLPB.html
These links pretty well give the specifics about the bonuses. They use a sliding scale based on proficiency and strategic importance of individual languages.
For years, I have been a proponent on SAF of American kids learning foreign languages, just like their contemporaries in other countries. The bonuses are really the least of the benefits for military members who have command of a foreign language and feel comfortable in a foreign environment. It can be a ticket to a transfer by request or a deployment (which are becoming rarer). It is a way to differentiate oneself and make one's Army life a little more interesting.
My DS had the good fortune of having a mother from Poland where all of her family lived. He was comfortable with being in a room full of people speaking to him in either jibberish or heavily broken English. We also encouraged him and he jumped at the chance to do two Rotary Exchanges where he lived with families where no English was spoken.
While in school he took advantage of Project Go, studying Russian in Kiev. He didn’t start Arabic until his Senior year. He chose the very unsexy Signal Branch and he got his first choice of duty station in Kuwait. Given his personality, he made every effort to speak with everyone from bus drivers to kitchen help. He will tell you that an American even trying to speak another language is afforded an automatic measure of respect.
Without going into too much detail, while in Kuwait he received a transfer by request to join an SF group that deployed to Kuwait, but whose Area of Responsibility is South America and the Caribbean. His Arabic was useful to them in the ME and his Portuguese and and Spanish are important to them now that he is stateside.
The Group sent him to jump school. He gets to do some training alongside the long tabbed soldiers. They made him Officer in Charge of a training mission of Green Berets to Brazil because there are no Portuguese speakers in his unit. He’s not a Green Beret. He’s a Signaleer!?!?
Of course, you go nowhere in the Army (or shouldn't) if you can’t do your job and his job is making sure the phones, computers and radios work. So if you can do your job, differentiate yourself and add value, it will get noticed.
Given the Geopolitics of the day, I’ve got to believe that a good facility with Russian will get noticed. Also, just as my DS picked up Spanish by virtue of his facility with Portuguese, your DS can do the same with a host of Slavic languages. I should know. I had four years of college Russian and two years later I was saying my wedding vows in a small town Polish church...in Polish.