Bonus sweetens service

[GreatAmerican]

Soldiers offered thousands in tax-free money to re-enlist

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/na...,1401907.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines

Boring through darkness at 30,000 feet toward Iraq, Air Force Staff Sgt. Eric Erbaugh, a loadmaster on this C-17 flying combat supplies, did a quick calculation and grinned. In a few hours, he would avoid paying Uncle Sam the taxes on $41,161.50.

Erbaugh is based at Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina and flies regularly on cargo missions to the Middle East. After eight years in the Air Force, he was re-enlisting for another five. That earned him a $41,161.50 cash re-enlistment bonus. And by signing his re-enlistment papers in a war zone, he'll get that bonus tax-free, saving enough to help pay his law school tuition and make a down payment on a house....

 

[GreatAmerican]

Marine Corps offers up to $80K to stay

Flat-rate bonus plan has something for everybody

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/06/marine_bonuses_070614/

Three weeks after the Corps’ top officer told his generals the retention effort “is not progressing according to plan,” the Corps announced a Selective Re-enlistment Bonus overhaul that now offers as much as an eye-popping $80,000 for some Marines to sign on for another four.

The new bonus program, unveiled June 7, kicks off June 24, and at that point, the days of flexible bonus multiples will be gone. It’s all about flat-rate bonuses based on rank and military occupational specialty, with a 33 percent raise in the maximum payment, according to MarAdmin message 349/07. The existing bonus had been capped at an already impressive $60,000....