Soldiers from the active duty, Guard and Reserve who volunteer for recruiting duty can now pocket a $5,000 lump sum bonus.
Army Human Resources Command issued the military personnel, or MILPERS, message 24-024, on Jan. 22.
This announcement adds on to a previous initiative announced in October in which the service sought to address a recruiter “shortfall” that resulted from Army Recruiting Command purging non-performing recruiters, Army Times reported.
The bonus also now applies to the Army reservists, according to the message.
The incentives fit within a larger, recent overhaul of Army recruiting after the service missed its recruiting goal in 2022 and 2023, falling short by 10,000 soldiers last year, Army Times reported.
Some of the overhaul efforts included a restructuring, requiring the recruiting command to report directly to the Army secretary and assigning the Army Enterprise Marketing Office and Army Cadet Command to Army Recruiting Command.
The service is also in the process of establishing new enlisted and warrant officer recruiting fields that will eventually replace the current military occupational specialty and end involuntary recruiting assignments.
Eligibility requirements:
- Soldiers must report to the Army Recruiting College (ARC) before March 31, 2024 and successfully graduate.
- Complete the Advanced Training Program, or ATP, within the first 120 days of assignment to a recruiting station.
- Receive a satisfactory ATP quality score from the New Recruiting NCO Board.
- Be in good standing and not flagged for adverse action under AR 600-8-2 and meet Army standards for retention outlined in AR 601-280 at the time of payment.
Source: MILPERS 24-024
The earlier push for recruiting duty volunteers sought 800 soldiers for the November and December courses. As part of that push, sergeants who completed the recruiting school and reported to their recruiting assignment would also be promoted to staff sergeant, regardless of time-in-grade or completion of professional military education.
As another incentive, staff sergeants selected for recruiting duty during the late push last year could earn a meritorious promotion to sergeant first class if they secured 24 recruits who ship to basic training over a 12-month period.
That promotion would be forthcoming whether the individual was on their career field’s promotion order of merit list or not.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
