Army Outspends Corps to Keep Captains

Bonuses that offer more money and more choices equate to greater retention - even when the incentives are tied to a longer obligation.

That's the lesson taken from the results of vastly different captain retention programs offered by the Army and Marine Corps.
 
The Army, which offered a bonus of up to $35,000 or a host of career choices for captains to remain in the service for three additional years, saw roughly 70 percent of eligible officers accept the deal.
 
The Marine Corps, which offered captains $4,000 for an additional year of service, had less than 50 percent of eligible officers accept.
 
All told, approximately 16,000 Army officers signed up for the retention program out of a possible 23,000, while 3,045 Marine captains re-upped for another year out of 7,000 eligible.

To find complete information on current enlistment incentives and reenlistment bonuses offered, visit the Military.com Bonus Center.

But the bonus programs do not come cheap.

The Marine Corps has budgeted $28 million for its bonuses while the Army will be paying out at least $400 million to retain its captains.
 
The new bonuses are critical, given the expansion of both services, the expected increase in the number of new troops deploying to Afghanistan, and the talent and command experience accrued by the young officers. Regardless of exact boots-on-the-ground numbers in Iraq or Afghanistan, Army and Marine Corps planners expect continued stress on the forces -- another reason for wanting to retain the captains.

Cash or career move

While the overwhelming majority of Army officers accepted the cash bonus, which comes in the form of a lump sum payment, approximately 700 of the officers agreed to a career-related incentive.

The career choices included branch of choice, post of choice, subsidized graduate school or military schooling, according to an Army spokesman.
 
The Army did not reply to a question from Military.com about whether it was happy with the response to the bonus program, but it's hard to imagine it otherwise, considering it was poised to see a significant number of officers leave before it made the offers.
 
"This program was the first of its kind for the Army and has been responsible for enhancing retention of these critical officers at a time when Army officer requirements growth was dramatic, and (Defense Department) career intention surveys indicated an impending exodus of mid-grade officers," Army spokesman Lt. Col. George Wright told Military.com.

For its part, the Marine Corps hedged its answer.

"It is too early to make a determination on the success of the program because this bonus is a new initiative available through 15 Sept 2009, and there historically has been no other bonus offered to Marine Captains or any other monetary retention tool designed for Captains," Marine spokeswoman Maj. Shawn Haney said in an e-mail.

The Corps also recently offered a college loan repayment program to both active and reserve officers as an enticement to recruit more officers.
 
Both bonuses are subject to federal, state and local taxes, unless a service member receives the bonus while deployed to a tax-free combat zone.

That means a $4,000 Marine Corps bonus could equate to less than $3,000 -- equal to the a federal tax return for many troops -- if the Marine captain is stationed in a high-tax state like California.
 
That's not much money considering another year in the Corps could possibly equate to a war-zone deployment and all its inherent stresses.
 
Even after taxes, however, the Army bonus, which ranges from $25,000 to $35,000 depending on the service member's military occupational specialty, is enough to pay off serious debt, put a down payment on a house or create a child's college fund.

While recruitment numbers have been boosted by the struggling economy, it takes at least three years -- and generally four to five years -- to create an experience captain.
 
Nevertheless, it's unclear if either service will offer similar bonus programs next year.