Army’s ‘quick ship’ bonus proves popular

[maseman]

Source: MSNBC/Washington Post

Recruits receive $20,000 if they agree to leave within days

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.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20453080/

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This is very scary. Kids who are thinking with their wallet and not their brains while enlisting. Doesn't this also recruit many more people of poverty than the kids from WASP households?

[itsrobert]

1. They are going to take the money

and buy a brand new SUV/Truck and it will sit on the post/base resale lot because they can't take it to Iraq/Afghanistan with them.

[bemildred]

2. Let me do the math for you.

They got 4149 people to sign up in three weeks, which is about 1383 persons per week. There are 52 weeks in the year. So that extrapolates to 52 * 1383 == 71,916 for the whole year. Now it says the goal is 80,000 for the year, which means they are about 10% under even with the bonus incentive.

[Poll_Blind]

4. Hunh! Interesting- thanks for doing the math on that and giving it...

...perspective.

PB

[trogdor]

5. These people were going to join anyway.

Here's some more not-so-fuzzy math.

They had nothing else to do during the summer and it made no difference to any of them whether they shipped out in September or next January. In fact, I bet a good number of them were happy not to sit in the Delayed Entry pool as long as most troops did in the past. Recruiting Command wasted $20,000 X 4149 = almost $83 million of the taxpayers' money.

[maseman]

6. Your math

Your math is only taking into account the people that got the bonuses. This didn't take into account people that enlisted without the bonuses, the people who came in from ROTC or as other forms of officers, etc. So the number multiplied by 52 weeks will be way over the 80,000.

[bemildred]

7. "Those recruits accounted for 92 percent of the 4,149 recruits who signed contracts between July 25

Is that confusing somehow?

"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."

I'm guessing that we are discussing the same "recruits" in both places.

It is worth considering that Summer ought to be one of the hot recruiting seasons, so they ought to be over the average per-week recruiting goal, not under it.

[maseman]

8. My mistake

You are correct. Still clearing the weekend's cob-webs from my head.

You could pay me a hundred grand and I wouldn't go into the mis-administrations war-mongering service.

[bemildred]

11. Yeah, but if you are joining up, might as well grab the bonus.

The story does not go out of its way to make the numbers clear.
:hi:

[hobbit709]

3. It also tells you how bad they need the manpower

[happygoluckytoyou]

9. AHHHH THE ENLISTING..... SURGE--------> how about THIS--->

what this also does not take into account is that------>

many of these are people who would have joined anyway within the next several months.... i know... when my son joined several years ago he was thinking about it anyway... AND ALONG CAME THIS BONUS... so he signed up a couple months before he had planned to...


of course that added ONE FOR FEBRUARY.... and subtracted a very probable ONE FOR APRIL...

I WOULD ESTIMATE THERE WAS A 10% CHANCE HE WOULD HAVE CHANGED HIS MINE BY APRIL.....

what it really means is that we are FINALLY realizing that we need to offer more $$$$$ for some people to risk their lives in a very difficult job----- and THAT is what it comes down to...

WHEN PEOPLE TALK......DRAFT...... HERE IS MY OPINION.... THE RICH KIDS ESCAPE IT ANYWAY WITH MEDICAL, RELIGON, COLLEGE, ASS CYSTS, ETC......... SO SCREW THE DRAFT....
HOW ABOUT CAPITALISM AT ITS FINEST....... KEEP RAISING THE PAY UNTIL THE RISK OF LIFE IS WORTH THE OFFER

we all risk our lives at work... policeman... teacher... crossing guard...
we all sell our time (and lives) for cash, one way or another...

THE DRAFT IS LEGALIZING SLAVERY....... SCREW THAT!!!!
And, of course, if one day the price of getting a soldier is $500,000 per year...
and if the price of the life insurance and death benefits of a soldier are $500,000 per soldier...
and WE the american people realize the real cost of creating a bunch of cripples for our parking lots and offramps...
MAYBE WE JUST CAN'T REALLY AFFORD TO GO TO WAR

[Javaman]

10. Quick ship AKA no time to think about it.

20 grand! golly gee, where do I sign????

later...

I signed up for 20 grand, not to get shot at!!!

[rich1107]

12. Like my bumper sticker says...

Rich Man's war...Poor Man's Blood.

You never see the useless scumbags that start these things actually fighting in them. If they began the draft by grabbing the senior class of Harvard & Yale, etc. the f%^&ing "war" in Iraq would be over the next day.

[maseman]

13. Next step is draft

You can only fork over so many dollars for a "volunteer" army until those people are tapped out. Draft is coming.