Army to expand recruiting incentives (1 B on ads/bonuses last yr)

[rodeodance]

Source: ap


Army to expand recruiting incentives

By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer 32 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Need a down-payment for your home? Seed money to start a business? The Army wants to help — if you're willing to join up. Despite spending nearly $1 billion last year on recruiting bonuses and ads, Army leaders say an even bolder approach is needed to fill wartime ranks.


Under a new proposal, men and women who enlist could pick from a "buffet" of incentives, including up to $45,000 tax-free that they accrue during their career to help buy a home or build a business. Other options would include money for college and to pay off student loans.

An Associated Press review of the increasingly aggressive recruiting offerings found the Army is not only dangling more sign-up rewards — it's loosening rules on age and weight limits, education and drug and criminal records.

It's all part of an Army effort to fill its ranks even as the percentage of young people who say they plan to join the military has hit a historic low — 16 percent by the Pentagon's own surveying — in the fifth year of the Iraq war.

I.......



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070810/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/army_creative_recruiting;_ylt=Am4ySb3vyyFWTU83wCG_BD.s0NUE

[Just-plain-Kathy]

1. Some author on the Daily Show said....

...we pay Blackwater $30k a month for each civilian soldier/contractor they hire to be place on the ground in Iraq.

...$45k? ...What a rip off.

[fed-up]

4. that was Jeremy Scahill-author of Blackwater, an excellent and should be required reading nt

[saigon68]

2. And they will whine up a storm

When they come back missing a leg

[Dj13Francis]

3. Not enough

Gonna hafta offer a lot more than that before I sign up.

[Ian David]

5. If you impeach Bush, I'll sign-up myself, dammit! All the "signing bonus" I would need!

It's not the JOB that's the problem... it's the BOSS!

Let them do a poll: "If Bush were impeached, and a Democrat became president, would you be more or less likely to join the armed services?"

[dipsydoodle]

6. Why don't they pay them

the same pay that contractors get ? $700 a day ?

[gratuitous]

7. Promises, promises

Four or six or eight years from now, when you try to collect on these grandiose promises of fabulous wealth, your service record gets a quick run-through with the fine-toothed comb. Late for morning reveille? Locker not squared away one day? Insufficient shine on belt buckle? Misspelled a word in your daily report? No bonus for you! Oh, and here's a bill for the time the military spent finding these heinous errors in your service record.