The Army is behind paying some $8.5 million worth of bonuses it promised to noncommissioned officers who went to recruiting school last winter as part of a surge to reverse a historic slump in enlistments.
In November, the service made a chaotic mad dash to deal with the recruiting crisis, begging for volunteers and ordering about 800 soldiers to the recruiting school at Fort Knox, Kentucky -- with some troops getting only a week's notice. Meanwhile, service planners promised $5,000 bonuses to anyone who attended the school between Nov. 1 and March 31.
Out of the 1,700 soldiers who attended the school in that time period, only two have received the bonus, the Army confirmed to Military.com.
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"The Army announced it would pay a $5,000 incentive to soldiers interested in becoming recruiters over the winter," Master Sgt. Josephine Pride, an Army spokesperson, said in a statement to Military.com. "Two soldiers have met those requirements."
However, Pride declined to comment on what is causing the delay -- whether there is a delay in processing the payments, soldiers haven't been properly briefed on how to get their payments, or those new recruiters aren't being assigned to recruiting duty -- despite the calls from service planners that gaps needed to be filled quickly.
For recruiters to qualify, they must have graduated from the school, be assigned to their first recruiting station, and complete a 150-day onboarding training. Recruiters also must submit paperwork declaring their qualification for the bonus. The requirement for onboarding training was not disclosed when the Army initially announced the bonuses.
That extra money may have been key for families who had to move suddenly for the new assignments. Recruiting stations are frequently located far from military installations and disconnected from resources to which military families often have access.
"Upon getting to their first duty assignment, they will be paid a one-time lump sum of $5,000," Sgt. Maj. Chris Stevens, the top enlisted leader for personnel policy, told reporters when the effort was announced in November.
Regardless, either the lion's share of recruiters should have been serving in their first duty station at this point and would qualify for the money, or the Army is not assigning new recruiters to fresh assignments.
The recruiter course can train 2,866 students across a total of 53 classes in a year, according to Army data. However, that data shows that it graduated only 1,336 in 2023. Recruiting duty is seen by some in the force as an undesirable job, with long hours and a steep learning curve to navigate the military's bureaucracy around getting an applicant into uniform.
To sweeten the deal on top of bonuses, the Army instituted a new, desperate policy giving automatic promotions to staff sergeant for any sergeants who become recruiters -- a virtually unprecedented move allowing a fast-track promotion regardless of time in grade.
The Army also waived requirements qualifying students to attend recruiting school during that surge, including the need to pass a fitness test or meet body fat standards, both of which are commonplace preconditions to attend most of the service's schools.
The news comes as the service as a whole has struggled to make good on deals it makes with its troops.
The Army National Guard is years behind in paying some 13,000 soldiers enlistment bonuses worth up to $20,000. That issue, which has caught the ire of lawmakers, has become so dire that some soldiers have served entire contracts without being paid the bonuses, despite the fact that the payments are supposed to be delivered quickly upon troops reporting to their first unit.
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