There seems to be this strange idea that being a linguist / contractor in Afghanistan is safe and easy money ..
Here are the stats for linguist casualties (861 injuries 4+ days / 64 deaths) for FY 2009-2011 for the employers I’ve heard of (Mission Essential and Global Linguist Solutions) .. There are more, but you can look it up yourselves ..
MEP employs approximately 5,000 linguists (upper bound). That means there is a 17.22% chance of being injured over 3 years or a 1.28% chance of being dead over 3 years.