Was there a family connection between “Winner” and the countries whose languages she spoke? I am sure military language training is very effective with some people, but to learn all of those languages at a high level means (to me) she is either (a) very dedicated and smart, or (b) she grew up speaking them. I can’t recall seeing any info about her background that would explain this.
She has no ME background. She’s from Kingsville, TX, near Corpus Christi and was an intense high school athlete. Probably just a random talent for languages.
Texas A&M has a branch there, so she might have been friendly with Iranians, etc, from there. It would still take freaky natural talent.
I’m not sure it still works this way but the military used to pick up a talent for languages on the ASVAB. There was more testing to confirm the talent/ability to learn languages.
The school is long... 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, often for a year or longer (which gives plenty of time for the required background check) Some related languages are taught at the same time. I would guess Reality’s three languages fall in that category.
There is a really high wash out rate just because of failure to learn the language, but people are also kicked out if they fail to get their security clearance.
Linguists used to be thought of as some of the brightest people in the military. Linguists like Reality hurt that reputation!