Originally Posted by CA1900

You'll be forced on the higher-paying 18-day Training Schedule and then the 72-day schedule for the first few months. Call it four months, with the remaining eight months on the 7/7. So that'd be $67114 gross, plus I'd guess around 7% for things like overtime and holiday pay. I'd estimate around $72K gross for the first year. Year 2, if you did it all on the 7/7, would be around $70K. (I use 7% as that's about what I averaged. It was very rare for me to see 10% in soft money.)

If you can afford to put money into the 401K (highly recommended), the company will match 52% of what you put in, up to 20% of your gross pay. So while it will hurt a bit short-term, investing as much as you could would gain you another ~$7500 in total compensation in the form of the 401K match. Just something to consider.