Career recruiters have at least another three months to earn a hefty bonus for re-enlisting, the Marine Corps announced Dec. 13.
According to Marine Administrative Message 588/05, the program that provided more than $40 million to some 2,600 Marines to re-enlist has been extended until the end of March.
Marines with the “8412” military occupational specialty in zones B and C could earn a bonus as high as $45,000. Those zones have a multiple of “3,” which means the amount of the bonus equates to three times the amount of one month’s base pay multiplied by the number of years for which the Marine re-enlists.
The bonuses signal an effort to hold on to tenured recruiters in the hopes of strengthening the current force combing America’s streets amid challenging opposition to the ongoing war in Iraq and concerns of wary parents.
In another message, published in February, the Corps beseeched former recruiters to rejoin the search for the next generation of Marines. The motive was two-fold: put seasoned recruiters back to work and from them cull a crop of career recruiters to lead the relatively young recruiting force in years to come.
In recent years, the number of career recruiters has diminished. Approximately 150 of the Corps’ 541 career recruiters retired in the last three years.
“We took a tremendous amount of retirements,” said Master Gunnery Sgt. Preston E. Ford, career recruiter selection monitor. “With those 8412s, we lost a lot of experience and seniority.”
Many of those careerists had 14 to 20 years of recruiting experience alone, he said.
The Selective Re-enlistment Bonus Program is enacted at the beginning of each fiscal year to “assist the Marine Corps in retaining the best Marines in our critical, short and hard to retain MOSs,” stated the message, released Aug. 31.
The bonuses for fiscal year 2006 were outlined in MarAdmin 404/05 and included a complete list of all eligible MOSs.
Zone B refers to Marines with six to 10 years of active duty service in the Corps. Zone C consists of Marines with 10 to 14 years of service.
Any Marines considering re-enlistment should consult their unit’s career planner.