So, the general mantra for defense contractors is that fresh college grads are hired to do work for very very cheap rates, and are given workloads that are near impossible to sustain. The churn rate on that sort of position is very high, but the ones that last more than three or so years who are able to negotiate a decent rate will definitely end up with 6-figure salaries.

To put it in perspective, I'm 33, and most of the peers of mine I speak of are loosely similar in age. That said, I had a friend of mine who was hired to the company I was working for at $40k (recent college grad, absolutely zero tech skills, but otherwise hard-charging, motivated and eager to learn) and within a year of my advice, his salary had been chipped up to $85k a year.

A part of it is obviously being able to market yourself personally, and a big part is actually being able to deliver -- a lot of defense / federal work is actually structured such that you can't succeed, so working against that is non-trivial -- but yeah, generally speaking, the money will come.

Long story short, with three years of experience and references (and a good reputation) working in contracting, you should be asking for at least $90k. The real trick in defense contracting though is that you become more marketable the wider your knowledge set, which is counter to almost everywhere else wherein your pay is derived from the depth of your knowledge.