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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US army is spending big money on bonuses designed to attract new recruits and retain its best soldiers in a bid to overcome a reluctance to re-enlist fueled by the Iraq war and the temptations of the private sector.
"The Army will spend probably about 200 million dollars in fiscal 2008 on bonuses as we currently foresee it. Average bonus is on the order of 8,000 dollars to 10,000 dollars, something like that," David Chu, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said Wednesday.
"Some people do get significant bonuses, I grant," he said. "But the typical person doesn't actually receive that large amount."
The Pentagon expects the prospect of financial bonuses will help it secure new applicants at a time when the military's needs are growing in light of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has just authorized the army to increase its ranks by 65,000 soldiers over three years instead of five, a measure that is expected to give a little breathing space to heavily engaged troops.
After more than four years of the unpopular war in Iraq, army leaders also are concerned that recruitment may become more and more difficult now that the conflict has left more than 3,800 US troops dead and over 27,000 wounded.
But recruitment bonuses have recently showed their power of enticement.
Almost all those who enlisted this past summer received a bonus of 20,000 dollars, which exceeds a yearly salary of a soldier at the beginning of his career, in exchange for a commitment to deployment to the battlefield.
This incentive has boosted recruitment that had been sluggish, and allowed the army to reach its recruitment objectives for 2007.
"It's more than just bonuses," said General Thomas Bostick, who is in charge of the army's recruitment program. "There are soldiers that come in for very patriotic reasons."
The army is even more generous with its more experienced officers and special forces troops as it tries to persuade them to re-enlist and thus reduce the risk of them leaving for companies like private security firm Blackwater that pays employees in Iraq several hundred dollars a day.
The navy, meanwhile, plans to spend this year 190 million dollars on bonuses this year, up 25 percent from 2006, to keep its more valued personnel: members of SEALs, a commando unit in charge of explosives and nuclear devices. Their proposed bonuses rise up to 90,000 dollars.
"This is for those sailors who have the critical skills we need the most. We are operating in a market-driven environment and we have to be willing to pay the market price to keep folks in," Admiral Mike LeFever, a personnel expert, was quoted as saying by The Navy Times.
In late 2004, the army put in place a retention program for senior officers considering retirement: 8,000 dollars for a year of extra service and up to 150,000 dollars for six additional years.
"There has been a lot of competition with the private sector," said Michael O'Hanlon, a defense expert with the Brookings Institution.
"I have no problem with that all, I think it's what you have to do. Some people are thinking: do we have to throw all this money to these people for them to stay in the military. It's not terrible, at the end it's paying people who put their lives at risk. If you keep good people that way, that's positive."
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