Доброе время суток!
"a guy who breaks his leg and then gets discharged from the Army during basic, becomes a CIA IT expert* despite not even a High School Diploma...and from the CIA, jumps over too NSA, then works for most of the NSA contractors in a private capacity, full Sec Clearance..."
Из Вики
On May 7, 2004, Snowden enlisted in the United States Army with the hope of eventually joining the Special Forces.[1] He said, "I wanted to fight in the Iraq war because I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression"[6] but was discharged just months later on September 28 after breaking both of his legs in a training accident. His next employment was as a National Security Agency (NSA) security guard for a covert facility at the University of Maryland,[15] before joining the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to work on IT security.[16]
In 2007, the CIA stationed him with diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was responsible for maintaining computer network security.[17] Snowden left the agency in 2009 for a private contractor inside an NSA facility on a United States military base in Japan.[6]
At the time of his departure from the US in May 2013, he had been working for consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton for less than three months as a system administrator inside the NSA in Hawaii.[18][19] He described his life as "very comfortable," earning a salary of "roughly US$200,000",[6] although his employer disputed this claim on June 10, when he was fired "for violations of the firm's code of ethics and firm policy."[20][21] Glenn Greenwald, a journalist who initially interviewed Snowden and reported Snowden's revelations, later wrote, “It's possible Booz Allen is using a pro-rated figure, or it's possible Snowden talked about his salary at his prior NSA job at Dell.
"The Guardian describes Snowden as intensely passionate about the value of privacy; his laptop displays stickers supporting internet freedom organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Tor Project.["
из текста не ясно был ли он в подготовке спецназа (18 серия) которая занимает около 2, 2.5 лет или нечто другое, как пехота/минометчики (11 серия) около 3 1/2 месяца.
Так или иначе началъная ступень у обоих одна, школа пехоты в бенинге (one site unit training(OSUT) - infantry).
Гоняют там ребят сильно. Форт Бенинг славится более тяжелой начальной подготовкой.
для пехотинцев других школ не надо чтобы поступить в часть, а для спецназа это начало долгого обязательного пути. В любом случае выглядит так что он вышел до окончания этой первой школы.
Интересно что его не оставили не переучение/окончание учения после снятия гипса. Это не всегда от солдата зависит, иногда выгоняют, а иногда не пускают.
для офицального ветеранского статуса, без участий в военных действиях надо: 1) в армии пробыть не менее первых 6 месяцев, и 2) иметь ранение/травму напрямую связанную со службой в бюрократическом понимании этой фразы. в огромной бюрократии в прицепе возможно что он получил статус ветерана не имея первой критерии, но это нестандарное решение.