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Army Lures Thousands Of Recruits
Into Deployment With $20,000 Bonus
Josh White
Washington
Post
Monday Aug 27, 2007
More than 90 percent of the Army's new recruits since late July
have accepted a $20,000 "quick ship" bonus to leave
for basic combat training by the end of September, putting thousands
of Americans into uniform almost immediately.
Many recruits who take the bonus -- scoring in many cases the
equivalent of more than a year's pay -- leave their homes within
days, recruiters said. The initiative is part of an effort by
Army officials to meet year-end recruiting goals after a two-month
slump earlier this year. With the fiscal year ending Sept. 30,
the Army hopes the extra cash motivates those interested in joining
or entices those just considering enlisting.
The program began on July 25, and in three weeks the Army had
enlisted 3,814 recruits using the bonus, according to the U.S.
Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Ky. Those recruits accounted
for 92 percent of the 4,149 recruits who signed contracts between
July 25 and Aug. 13.
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The $20,000 bonus is a hefty sum for many of the individuals
the Army targets most aggressively: young men and women who have
not settled on a career. The Army estimates that soldiers coming
out of initial training are paid $17,400 a year on average.
But the effort, experts said, could pose problems for the Army
in the coming months, because those who might have helped fill
recruiting quotas later this year or in early 2008 are instead
joining now.
Bethany Moore, 19, of Jessup, visited a recruiting station Wednesday,
knowing that she wanted to sign up in the hopes of building a
stable career. A 2006 graduate of Northern High School in Calvert
County, Moore had worked a series of "regular jobs"
and wanted to make a serious change. "I just wanted to do
something better with my life," she said.
Although she expected a six-month waiting period to go to basic
training, she learned of the bonus and immediately accepted. She
will ship out within a week. "It was a welcome surprise,"
Moore said. "And it's a lot of money."
Military personnel experts said the signing bonuses are a transparent
way for the Army to meet its annual goal of 80,000 recruits amid
an increasingly difficult recruiting environment. They also said
the rush to get people into uniform might have more to do with
meeting numerical targets than with the wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq, though many of those who join the Army face the possibility
of deployment to combat soon.
The Army hopes the bonus will increase its recruiting numbers
for August, a month whose goals are among the largest of the year.
The Army will announce the August numbers in early September.
"The Army is intent on trying to meet its recruitment goals
in terms of numbers by the end of the fiscal year, so they're
doing just about anything they can to bring those numbers up,"
said Cindy Williams, an analyst at the Security Studies Program
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "To me it signals
something that we've been seeing already from the Army, a trade-off
in terms of quality and quantity. My sense is that right now,
they're willing to take anybody who is willing to walk in the
door and ship by Sept. 30."
Army officials have lowered standards and increased waivers in
recent years to meet their recruiting goals, in part to deal with
the strain of the wars and to quickly expand the Army. But the
Army has been more concerned with nose-diving public opinion about
the war in Iraq and the role of "influencers" -- parents,
teachers and coaches -- who have been increasingly unwilling to
recommend the military as a career option to young people.
The $20,000 bonus can be enticing, especially to those who lack
a steady job, languish in debt or are worried about their future.
Staff Sgt. Kevin Gordon, a recruiter in Glen Burnie, said a majority
of the people who come into his office have already decided to
join the service and then jump at the chance to leave now.
"They have school loans, mortgages, they have family concerns,"
said Gordon, whose three recent recruits all took the bonus. "It's
a great incentive because something like that leaves families
in a good financial posture, and they feel a little more comfortable
knowing their bills will be taken care of."
The way the bonus works is simple: Recruits willing to ship out
within the next month will receive $10,000 upon completion of
basic training and advanced individual training. Then, over the
course of their initial active-duty enlistment, they will receive
$10,000 in even annual sums. For a young recruit with no college
education, the bonus, which is taxable, could be the equivalent
of a year of pay over the course of a three-year enlistment. And
the recruit can still qualify for other sign-up bonuses.
The quick-ship bonus spurred John C. Davis III, 24, of East Baltimore
to sign his enlistment papers on July 27, two days after the program
began. Davis received a two-year college degree in graphic design
in 2005 but has been stuck in a "dead end" job without
much pay, loading tractor-trailers. He will ship out Wednesday
after doing regular workouts with his recruiter in Towson, Staff
Sgt. Brian Grotz.
Davis will also get a $25,000 bonus for taking an Army position
as a petroleum specialist, meaning he will have a year's salary
in his bank account before he starts his first Army job.
For Davis, who has 4-year-old twins and relies on his mother
for help, the bonuses will give him a start on finding a nice
place to live and a foundation for a graphic design business someday.
"When I first heard about the bonus, I thought that I could
really get my life in order," Davis said. "Pay some
bills, put some money aside, help my mother. I was really going
to go in anyway; I just wasn't planning to go this soon."
Sgt. Willie Thomas, a recruiter in the Woodbridge office, said
the quick-ship bonus is helpful as an eye-catcher, but he thinks
that it is not enough to change attitudes about the military or
the Iraq war. Although his office has a sign on its door advertising
the bonus, he said it is one of the last things he mentions to
a potential recruit.
He says he emphasizes "Army benefits" above all else,
such as a stable job, work experience and health care.
"They would have to be really interested in the Army before
I would mention the bonus," Thomas said. "I don't want
anyone making a commitment based on $20,000. That amount of money
doesn't last a lifetime."
But James Hosek, a defense manpower expert at the Rand Corp.,
said that though the quick-ship bonus is a "very smart move"
by the Army, it could attract people who are less motivated to
be in the service.
"There's a risk of bringing people in with lesser attachment
or commitment to the Army," Hosek said. "Adding money
will, for some people, sweeten the deal enough to persuade them
to enter."
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