Army offers up to $90K bonuses to lure troops back

[Ealyssa]

Is this going to be like the last time when they handed out recruitment bonuses and then after a while said: "Nah, just kidding, pay us back the money please."

Stop Army from stealing back signing bonuses 10 years later, after vets completed contracts.

wow that's just disgusting O_o

[Skandulous]

What? When was that? My dad went through Basic back in the 80's and they didn't beat you.

the 90's and that was mostly when guys tried to show off or act tough to the drill instructor and got put in their place. We had guys literally crying and quitting bootcamp within the first week. I dont know how it is now but after i was out they were handing out stress cards to see the chaplain so if you felt emotional like you were being picked on you could pull the card and they had to lay off you and let you talk about your feelings to the chaplain.

[callipygoustp]

Is this going to be like the last time when they handed out recruitment bonuses and then after a while said: "Nah, just kidding, pay us back the money please."

Stop Army from stealing back signing bonuses 10 years later, after vets completed contracts.

This was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the title of the thread.

[Halicia]

wow that's just disgusting O_o

or as my governor would call it "welfare abuse".

two problems with incentive pay...

#1... if there's "no strings attached", you end up filling the spots with people who do the bare minimum (if you're lucky)

#2... if there *are* strings attached, your commanders now have an incentive to disqualify you from your bonus... once they've used you up for long enough to get the next sucker..... err... recruit in queue. i saw this happen to a buddy of mine... he ended up getting thrown out of the military (in large part) for an overdue movie rental.

[WoWGoneBad]

They baby ppl in bootcamp now a days as well. When i went in you got your ass beat and yelled at constantly i saw handfuls of grown ass men cry like girls.

I was in Bootcamp and AIT back in 1993 and it was literally an Adult Baby sitting camp. Drill Sargent's were not allowed to yell at the trainees, they were not allowed to get physical with the trainees, no hand to hand combat training... And BEST of all... They had a fucking STRESS CARD that we could flash in front of a Drill Sargent to stop them in their tracks if we felt they were being to aggressive with us.

When I went in I was SO looking forward to the training of the 30-60s were you were TRAINED to FIGHT trained to Survive... That was the start of the female and manpussy ass troops that entered the service for the GI Bill and College Education, not to become soldiers trained to fight and die for your country and fellow soldiers. I lasted three years before I could not take it anymore and got out.

I myself would not re-enter if offered just because the training was just not tough enough or rigorous enough. To this day I still wish I joined the Marines instead, but was in H.S. at the time and they would not take me without Diploma.

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wow that's just disgusting O_o

Welcome to America where our government Dont give two shits about sending our children and parents to war and forget they exist them when they come home. This alone makes me so damned angry. Seeing our troops come home missing limbs suffering from post war fatigue and PTSD, lack of integration into the working market.... I could go on and on but /end rant.

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the 90's and that was mostly when guys tried to show off or act tough to the drill instructor and got put in their place. We had guys literally crying and quitting bootcamp within the first week. I dont know how it is now but after i was out they were handing out stress cards to see the chaplain so if you felt emotional like you were being picked on you could pull the card and they had to lay off you and let you talk about your feelings to the chaplain.

What Base was this. I was in Ft Sill Ok, and only one guy was sent home and the Drills could not even touch you.

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No branch ever "allowed" Drill Sergeants to physically assault the soldiers. It may have happened here and there back in the day, but it definitely wasn't the norm. Maybe back in the 60's and 70's it was, but I'm not familiar with what happened back then.

My husband went to Basic back in '02 and he doesn't recall anyone being struck. Yelled at and degraded? Hell yes. They didn't have the stress cards when he was there.

And that is EXACTLY the problem. Todays military are not being trained for the full on extent of war. Do you think the enemy will not beat the ever loving SHIT out of us to get information, get to our commanders...... We need to go back to real true military training with full hand to hand. Yes there were some Drills who took advantage and realy went overboard on trainees but it is still needed.

[Spiffums]

I wouldn't go back unless they addressed a lot of my issues I had:

1) Blatant sexism in terms of the APFT
2) The abuse of junior enlisted who had no families (Hey we need someone to come in and do XXXXX. Let's send PFC XYZ because PFC XXX has kids at home)
3) The fact that a cook makes the same as a lab/xray/OR tech if of the same grade and service

Oh and typically it was infantry or combat related MOS's that got the bonus.

You do know that is pretty standard across all government employees.

[Dr Assbandit]

I was in Bootcamp and AIT back in 1993 and it was litterally an Adult Baby sitting camp. Drill Sargents were not allowed to yell at the trainees, they were not allowed to get physical with the trainees, now hand to hand combat training... And BEST of all... They had a fucking STRESS CARD that we could flash in from of a Drill Sargent to stop them in their tracks if we felt they were being to aggressive with us.

When I went in I was SO looking forward to the training of the 30-60s were you were TRAINED to FIGHT trained to Survive... That was the start of the female and manpussy ass troops that entered the service for the GI Bill and College Education, not to become soldiers trained to fight and die for your country and fellow soldiers. I lasted three years before I could not take it anymore and got out.

I myself would not re-enter if offered just because the training was just not tough enough or rigorous enough. To this day I still wish I joined the Marines instead, but was in H.S. at the time and they would not take me without Diploma.

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Welcome to America where our government Dont give two shits about sending our children and parents to war and forget they exist them when they come home. This alone makes me so damned angry. Seeing our troops come home missing limbs suffering from post war fatigue and PTSD, lack of integration into the working market.... I could go on and on but /end rant

I was under the impression marine training was still extremely tough?

As for not taking care of our vets it's something I have a huge problem with especially in regard to medicine. The VA branch of our hospital is considered one of the better ones and I've still heard some pretty sad stories from the patients there trying to get care. Suicide rates among veterans is still a huge problem and lack of good reintegration programs to civilian life especially after deployment to combat areas is still being overlooked.

[Draco-Onis]

Our armed forces have been desperate for recruitment since the 90s, it is the byproduct of so many long wars and us basically screwing our veterans when they come back home. We will eventually reach a breaking point, no amount of money is going to be able to lure people when it's pretty obvious how messed up our system is.

[draganid]

Is this going to be like the last time when they handed out recruitment bonuses and then after a while said: "Nah, just kidding, pay us back the money please."

Stop Army from stealing back signing bonuses 10 years later, after vets completed contracts.

jesus christ thats fucking revolting

[Putin-Chan]

Gotta prep for WW3

[Skandulous]

I was in Bootcamp and AIT back in 1993 and it was litterally an Adult Baby sitting camp. Drill Sargents were not allowed to yell at the trainees, they were not allowed to get physical with the trainees, now hand to hand combat training... And BEST of all... They had a fucking STRESS CARD that we could flash in from of a Drill Sargent to stop them in their tracks if we felt they were being to aggressive with us.

When I went in I was SO looking forward to the training of the 30-60s were you were TRAINED to FIGHT trained to Survive... That was the start of the female and manpussy ass troops that entered the service for the GI Bill and College Education, not to become soldiers trained to fight and die for your country and fellow soldiers. I lasted three years before I could not take it anymore and got out.

I myself would not re-enter if offered just because the training was just not tough enough or rigorous enough. To this day I still wish I joined the Marines instead, but was in H.S. at the time and they would not take me without Diploma.

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Welcome to America where our government Dont give two shits about sending our children and parents to war and forget they exist them when they come home. This alone makes me so damned angry. Seeing our troops come home missing limbs suffering from post war fatigue and PTSD, lack of integration into the working market.... I could go on and on but /end rant.

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What Base was this. I was in Ft Sill Ok, and only one guy was sent home and the Drills could not even touch you.

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And that is EXACTLY the problem. Todays military are not being trained for the full on extent of war. Do you think the enemy will not beat the ever loving SHIT out of us to get information, get to our commanders...... We need to go back to real true military training with full hand to hand. Yes there were some Drills who took advantage and realy went overboard on trainees but it is still needed.

This happened in Navy bootcamp NTC great lakes and i thought the Navy was the most relaxed guess i was wrong.

[Deleted]

Anyone considering this offer really needs to look into previous bonuses like these offered in the past. Many are unpaid, many of the soldiers actually owe money because of contract retractions....

[Zmaniac17]

It's very likely for specific MOS's. The Military still has standards and they dismiss a lot of applicants. They're not desperate... just picky.

Ya some people seem to think that anyone can get into the army. They definitely have a lot of requirements. And these bonuses are probably meant to keep the experienced personnel that could get paid a lot more on the outside if they wanted to. Some of them can even keep the same or similar job working for a military contractor and rake in the dough.

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Anyone considering this offer really needs to look into previous bonuses like these offered in the past. Many are unpaid, many of the soldiers actually owe money because of contract retractions....

Especially coming from an administration that really doesn't spend a lot of time figuring out how they will pay for things.

[ohiostate124]

Signing bonuses aren't new. You should see what some of the nukes in the navy get to stay on.

[daenerys]

3) The fact that a cook makes the same as a lab/xray/OR tech if of the same grade and service
Oh and typically it was infantry or combat related MOS's that got the bonus.

People of the same pay grade make the same amount of base pay. That's kind of how pay grades work. Also the cook is going to take much longer to be promoted than the lab tech. In a lot of cases the lab techs will end up in a higher pay grade than the cooks right out of tech school, and typically the cooks are contractors not military. And of course combat related fields would more likely to get bonuses. The more dangerous, and/or the more technical the field, the more likely you are to get bonuses.

[ChrisObscuri]

Signing bonuses aren't new. You should see what some of the nukes in the navy get to stay on.

Nuke here, if I could sell back that bonus, I would. The money isn't worth the loss of time you have with family and friends. I've missed 4 funerals since I've joined.

[Ghostpanther]

Good. If you are trying to build the military back up after 8 years of neglect and you have no draft, it will cost a lot. But worth it.

[WskyDK]

Lol fuck that. There's no amount of money that could get me to re-join.

[ohiostate124]

Nuke here, if I could sell back that bonus, I would. The money isn't worth the loss of time you have with family and friends. I've missed 4 funerals since I've joined.

Guess there's 2 sides to every coin. Couldn't turn nuke down fast enough when my recruiter brought it up.

[WskyDK]

the 90's and that was mostly when guys tried to show off or act tough to the drill instructor and got put in their place. We had guys literally crying and quitting bootcamp within the first week. I dont know how it is now but after i was out they were handing out stress cards to see the chaplain so if you felt emotional like you were being picked on you could pull the card and they had to lay off you and let you talk about your feelings to the chaplain.

None of that shit going on at the Benning School for Wayward Boys.