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thedrifter
08-01-06, 03:02 PM
Targeted SRBs
By John Hoellwarth
Marine Corps Times Staff writer

Marines in certain specialties can snare up to $60,000 to re-enlist in the coming fiscal year.

One year after raising the cap on Selective Re-enlistment Bonuses to $40,000 for first-termers and $45,000 for career Marines, the Corps plans to offer $60,000 for Marines who are on their third or fourth contract and specialize in intelligence, counterintelligence, reconnaissance, explosive ordnance disposal or Middle East cryptologic linguistics.

In addition, eight more military occupational specialties - for a total of 191 - will be eligible for SRBs in fiscal 2007, according to a July 21 MarAdmin message announcing the rates.

And now's the time to make your reservation. Career force planner Maj. Jerry Morgan said that, with few exceptions, the aviation MOSs will see many bonus increases across the board in 2007. He said the big winners also include Marines in combat arms communities such as tanks, artillery and assault amphibian battalions.

Morgan said bonuses will go to Marines with MOSs prone to high operational tempo. Combat engineers and motor vehicle operators will receive a bonus "for the first time in many years," he said.

Other specialties weren't as fortunate. The new re-enlistment bonuses lower retention incentives for some specialties, including first-term construction wiremen, who now rate a multiple of 1 instead of the multiple of 5 they were granted last year.

Marines must re-up for a four-year contract to rate a bonus, said Maj. Trevor Hall, head of enlisted retention.

Of those first-term Marines who re-enlist in the coming fiscal year, as many as 82 percent could receive a cash incentive, Morgan said. Up to 65 percent of Zone B Marines could rate cash, while Zone C Marines have a 47 percent chance, although the numbers will depend on the career decisions of each Marine, Morgan said.

Marines who would normally rate a bonus in their MOS have the option of making a lateral move upon re-enlistment, meaning they could potentially forfeit their bonus in favor of nabbing a job that doesn't offer cash to Marines new to that MOS. Only 12 MOSs offer a bonus to those making lateral moves who must still complete required training before the check comes in, so there's no way to be certain how many Marines in each zone will pocket cash until all the chips fall, Morgan said.

Last year, the Marine Corps ramped up the bonus cap from $35,000 to $40,000 for first-term re-enlistees and introduced half multiples to offer cash to MOS communities that would have otherwise gone without. But only 70 percent of those who re-upped in fiscal 2006 were eligible for a piece of the action. Caps for Zone B and Zone C Marines also increased, from $35,000 to $45,000.

Those bonus caps remain at those levels, save the five exceptions that rate up to $60,000.

Of the Marines eligible to re-enlist for their third or fourth contract in these specialties, the Corps expects about 120 to cash in on the targeted cap increase. Hall said the Corps raised the bonus cap to retain more of these Marines because their job fields are highly technical, involve difficult training, require high aptitudes and typically lead to lucrative civilian employment. Offering these Marines a higher multiple for re-enlistment is no incentive unless the caps are raised to allow them to collect it.

"If caps were raised to 60 grand across the board, everyone's bonuses would be the same regardless. Only multiples of 5 in zones B and C cause the bonus to go over 45 grand," Hall said.

Raising the bonus cap for targeted MOSs is just one club retention officials have in their golf bag, and whether they will reach for it again for other MOSs is uncertain.

"We could do that for other MOSs if we have to, but it's an incentive we apply when we need it and the need is always changing," Hall said.

Morgan said the Corps aims to re-enlist 6,069 first-term Marines next year and 6,461 career Marines. First-term Marines may find stiff competition for boat spaces in their MOS if the retention bonanza of fiscal 2006 carries over to next year. The Corps announced June 19 that it had re-enlisted 5,892 first-termers and 6,250 career Marines, meaning the fiscal 2007 goal is 388 more Marines, at least based on the recent announcement.

Hall said the Corps announced the new SRBs earlier than normal - they usually appear in late August or early September - to coincide with MarAdmin message 264/06, released June 9, which allows Marines to apply and be approved for re-enlistment as early as July 1, though they must wait until Oct. 1 to raise their right hand. Hall said this is a way for Marines in fast-filling MOSs to increase their chances of nabbing a boat space and for the Corps' career retention specialists to begin preaching the gospel of re-enlistment to their eligible Marines.

To decide which job fields will rate bonuses and how much each bonus will be, the Corps compares the number of Marines in the re-enlistment population to troop requirements for each MOS, as well as historic re-enlistment rates. The data is scrubbed against the annual study provided by the Center for Naval Analyses that shows the propensity of Marines to re-enlist given a particular bonus, Morgan said.

"If there are 100 Marines in a field who [end active service] in '07 and the re-enlistment requirement is 20, then the Corps only requires a 20 percent retention rate," Morgan said. "But if the propensity to re-enlist in that MOS is greater than 20 percent, then an SRB is not required to meet the Marine Corps' re-enlistment goal."

Ellie