The Army may be getting smaller, but it still has room for thousands of quality soldiers who want to extend their military careers over the next year.
The 2016 re-enlistment opportunity window for the active Army applies to two general categories of soldiers whose terms of service:
- Expire before Oct. 1, 2016, the end of fiscal 2016.
- Expire during fiscal 2017, which begins Oct. 1, and ends Sept. 30, 2017.
The retention effort for 2016 is comparable to the 2015 re-up campaign, which resulted in nearly 50,000 soldiers extending their active-duty service.
Because the Army is entering a period of large force reductions, some 40,000 over the next two years, the retention program is tightly managed, especially for soldiers who are in over-strength specialties.
Sgt. Luis Suarez, a student enrolled in the Tracked Vehicle Recovery Course at Fort Hood, Texas, takes the oath of reenlistment while wading in the school's mire pit in April.
Photo Credit: Army
The Army continues to manage retention by three general personnel categories: first-term soldiers with six or fewer years of service; mid-career soldiers with six to 10 years of service, and careerists with 10 or more years of service.
Staff sergeants and senior NCOs with 10 or more years of service usually are required to take an indefinite enlistment to remain on active duty.
The Army's long-standing practice of offering five re-enlistment options remains in effect for fiscal 2016. The options are:
- Regular Army (E1). This option does not guarantee an assignment, training or stabilization. Soldiers will be assigned to meet the needs of the Army, unless they are re-enlisting to meet a service-obligation.
- Current Station Stabilization (E2). This option generally provides stabilization of one to 12 months for soldiers who re-enlist for three, four, five or six years, except that soldiers who re-up for a location-specific retention bonus may be stabilized for up to 24 months, depending on their unit location.
- Army Training (E3). This option guarantees attendance at a school of choice for specialty or language training for soldiers who re-up for three to six years.
- Overseas Assignment (E4). This option is targeted at soldiers who re-enlist for such areas as Europe, South Korea, Alaska and the Pacific region. Soldiers must re-up for four to six years for a long-tour area, and three to six years for a short-tour area.*
- Continental U. S. Station of Choice (E5). This option guarantees an assignment of 12 months or more at a stateside post for soldiers who re-enlist for three to six years. Note, however, that soldiers currently assigned to a non-tactical unit, such a non-deployable headquarters, must re-enlist for assignment to a tactical unit, such as a deployable battalion, brigade or division. Soldiers are not allowed to re-enlist for back-to-back assignments to TDA (non-tactical) units.
The availability of these options is determined by a soldier's management category (first-term, mid-career or career) and the strength status of his or her military occupational specialty as follows:
Initial Term Soldiers
First-termers who are serving in an overstrength MOS (as displayed in the Oct. 9 In/Out Reclassification Calls) are limited to Options 1 or 2, but must reclassify to an understrength or balanced MOS. Exceptions are authorized for soldiers who re-enlist for assignment to an airborne position.
Soldiers who are serving in a balanced MOS are eligible for Options 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. However, if they chose Option 3 (Training), but they must reclassify to a shortage MOS.
Initial-term soldiers who are serving in a short-handed MOS are eligible for Options 1, 2, 4 and 5.
Mid-Career Soldiers
Soldiers who are in an overstrength MOS are limited to Options 1 or 2, but must reclassify to an understrength or balanced MOS. Exceptions are authorized for soldiers who re-enlist for assignment to an airborne position.
Soldiers who are serving in a balanced MOS are eligible for Options 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. However, if they chose Option 3 (Training), they must reclassify to a shortage MOS.
Soldiers who are serving in a short-handed MOS are eligible for Options 1, 2, 4 and 5.
Careerist Soldiers
Sergeants and staff sergeants with fewer than 10 years of service who are in an overstrength MOS are limited to options 1 or 3, but must reclassify to a Tier 4, or higher, MOS in the latest Selective Retention Bonus announcement.
Sergeants and staff sergeants with fewer than 10 years of service who are serving in a balanced or short-handed MOS are limited to Option 1.
Sergeants and staff sergeants with 10 or more years of service must re-enlist under Option 1. Staff sergeants in this category will be placed in the Indefinite Re-enlistment Program.
Soldiers in this category can request retraining and reclassification to a Tier 4 SRB specialty in conjunction with their assignment to the Indefinite Re-enlistment Program.
Promotable staff sergeants and higher, regardless of the strength status of their MOS, will be limited to Option 1 if they have fewer than 10 years of service.
Want to switch jobs?
While researching a possible job change, soldiers also should research the promotion potential for candidate specialties.
A good information source for junior enlisted soldiers are the monthly cutoff scores for advancements to sergeant and staff sergeant.
Soldiers who want to research NCO promotions should review the MOS selection statistics that are released with the annual senior NCO promotion lists. This information can be accessed from the "Career" link on the homepage of Human Resources Command, www.hrc.army.mil.
When researching a job change, soldiers also should check out the Army's two major retention incentive programs for enlisted soldiers. Those are the:
- Tiered Selective Retention Bonus program which offers cash bonuses of up to $72,000 for qualified first-term and mid-career soldiers. The most recent SRB charts took effect Oct. 9, and can be accessed here.
- Critical Skills Retention Bonus program offers bonuses of up to $150,000 for senior NCOs in priority specialties who are at, or near, retirement eligibility. The most recent CSRB rates took effect Oct. 22, and are targeted at Special Forces soldiers.
For information and assistance in applying for re-enlistment and/or reclassification, soldiers should contact their local career counselor.
Officials expect that fewer than 15 percent of the soldiers who re-enlist this year will come from the 2016 cohort, with the remainder coming from the cohort with ETS (expiration term of service) in fiscal 2017.
Under instructions recently issued to career counselors in the field, a soldier's individual re-enlistment opportunity window opens 15 months in advance of their ETS, and closes 90 days before the ETS.
The retention campaign described above will end Sept. 30, 2016.
