WASHINGTON -- Soldiers who re-enlist in the Central Command area of responsibility this fiscal year are now eligible for a lump-sum bonus of about $5,000 and the bonus is also retroactive for Soldiers who re-enlisted from Oct. 1 until now.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approved the Targeted Selective Re-enlistment Bonus Dec. 17 for active-component soldiers in CENTCOM. National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan are also eligible for a re-enlistment bonus under a different program. They can receive $2,500 for a three-year re-enlistment and $5,000 for committing to stay six years in their component.
TSRB for the active-component was first offered to Soldiers this fall during a two-week window that closed Sept. 30, said Sgt. Maj. James A. Vales.
Vales is the Army’s senior retention manager and retention proponent for the Army’s G-1 at the Pentagon.
The TSRB, as Vales called it, was introduced in September to active-component Soldiers serving in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Korea because the Army was 6,000 Soldiers behind its goal of re-enlisting 51,000 for Fiscal Year 2003.
“We were running a little behind for the year and the bonus put us over the top,” Vales said.
To meet that goal, the Army offered a flat-rate $5,000 re-enlistment bonus for Soldiers. The only catch, though, was they had to re-up from Sept. 17 to Sept. 30. Additionally, only Soldiers in those four countries were eligible.
Unlike the first bonus’s flat rate of $5,000, the new bonus is calculated on two scales -- called A Zone and B Zone -- and based on a Soldier’s rank, time in grade and years in service, Vales said. That means more or maybe less money coming in, he said.
According to an example Vales gave, a private first class with less than two years in service would be in the A Zone and would receive $6,784.50 for a three-year re-enlistment. A staff sergeant in B Zone with over six years in the Army would receive $6612.30.
The program, with the retroactive period to Oct. 1 included, will cost about $100 million for Fiscal Year 2004, he said.
To receive the bonus, Soldiers have to re-up for a minimum of three years. That time will also include a 12-month stabilization at their unit, Vales said.
The Army is also trying to keep the bonus unit specific, meaning units already down range -- like the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan and 1st Armored Division in Iraq, Vales said.
Title 37 of the U.S. Federal Code states that the Department of Defense only pays a bonus to critical skills, he explained.
The Army determined that any MOS in those three countries was critical brought back the bonus.
To reinstate the bonus, Vales said a change was made to the code for Soldiers in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, Korea was bumped off the list of countries that Soldiers could receive the bonus, though Soldiers there are still eligible for a Military Occupational Skill-based bonus, he added.
Additionally, Soldiers deploying to Iraq, Kuwait or Afghanistan with the Fort Hood, Texas-based 1st Cavalry Division, or the Schofield Barracks, Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division are also being targeted for another type of bonus, Vales said.
