Donklephant » Blog Archive » $20,000 Bonus To Join The Army

$20,000 Bonus To Join The Army

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Military, Money

If you thought the Pentagon was having problems getting people to join, well, you’re right. But these recruits are only getting the bonus if they train quickly and ship out almost immediately to Iraq.

I hope they’re alive to spend it.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 and is filed under Military, Money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “$20,000 Bonus To Join The Army”

Jeremy Says:
August 27th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
I wonder how short the services are of their quotas. I know that they aren’t going to volunteer that information. I’m guessing the armed services are facing record low enlistments and that the all-volunteer force is seriously taxed.

I know that the military service has requirements, I wonder how much they are overlooking these requirements in order to replenish the ranks? Last I checked you have to have at the very least a GED and a highschool diploma was a requisite just a short time ago. The services do accept a small percentage of recruits which are considered Tier 3 recruits but I think the services are only allowed to accept a certain percentage of these “less desirable” recruits. Tier 3 recruits are typically non-graduates of highschool and typically have a 1 or 2 marks against them, either having a criminal past or an addiction to alcohol or narcotics. Some even have mental health
history before entering the military.

I can understand the militaries frustration in trying to cobble together the
bodies required to maintain a viable fighting force. I think this monetary incentive will no doubt bring in new recruits, the quality of which will no doubt be inferior to the standing all-volunteer force but there is no choice our armed services are strained to the max.
Matthew High Says:
August 27th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
This is from over a year ago, but last summer the Army plastered my local town of Salinas on every bus bench, post and streetlamp with recruitment posters, telling everyone how much money they could get:

Tacky, neh?
Jim S Says:
August 27th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
My understanding is that the Army is having problems meeting its numbers but the other three branches are meeting their quotas.
Mike Says:
August 28th, 2007 at 8:22 am
To my knowledge the Air Force isn’t having recruiting problems, we’re having retention problems. The top and bottom are at decent levels, but the middle ranks are thinning. We’ve also been dealing with massive cuts. People not being allowed to re-enlist, or being cut loose early from their contracts. I know this because my ass is hanging on that line.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

NOTE TO COMMENTERS:

You must ALWAYS fill in the two word CAPTCHA below to submit a comment. And if this is your first time commenting on Donklephant, it will be held in a moderation queue for approval. Please don't resubmit the same comment a couple times. We'll get around to moderating it soon enough.

Also, sometimes even if you've commented before, it may still get placed in a moderation queue and/or sent to the spam folder. If it's just in moderation queue, it'll be published, but it may be deleted if it lands in the spam folder. My apologies if this happens but there are some keywords that push it into the spam folder.

One last note, we will not tolerate comments that disparage people based on age, sex, handicap, race, color, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry. We reserve the right to delete these comments and ban the people who make them from ever commenting here again.

Thanks for understanding and have a pleasurable commenting experience.