Navy cuts re-up bonuses

[unhappycamper]

Navy cuts re-up bonuses
By Lisa M. Novak, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, February 19, 2009

NAPLES, Italy — Thousands of sailors will lose millions of re-enlistment dollars as the Navy makes drastic changes to its Selective Reenlistment Bonus program next month.

The Navy announced the revamped bonus levels in a fleetwide message last week, listing changes to hundreds of job specialties across three enlistment zones that range from the first-term sailor to those with up to 14 years of service.

The change affects more than 33,000 sailors. The SRB budget was cut by $45 million from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2009, according to Navy Personnel Command officials.

In all, 446 SRBs were decreased or eliminated. A handful of job specialty ratings maintained their current bonus levels, and 69 job bonuses went up. Those increases were primarily in nuclear engineering, ballistic missile defense, computer and special warfare.

Individuals in those specialties can receive as much as $90,000 for a single bonus, particularly in the nuclear engineering field. But even those bonuses might be reduced by October.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60810



uhc comment: It's important to note that the 2009 military budget is almost a trillion dollars. IMO, we have enough stuff to kill at least half of the planet's population.

[LiberalFighter]

1. Why should they receive bonuses? Why don't they just pay them a bit more if they are really worth it

Don't they pay them based on the amount time they have served? And then they wouldn't have to worry about getting the money back if the individual fails to qualify.

[Angleae]

2. Re-elistment bonuses aren't for all career fields.

Just those they have trouble getting people to re-up in.