Army offers big bonuses to recruits

WASHINGTON – The Army doubled enlistment bonuses Wednesday, offering as much as $40,000, and pledged to take recruits up to age 42 if necessary.

Army Secretary Francis Harvey said he’ll spend more on advertising and will offer $1,000 “finders’ fees” to current soldiers who identify a likely recruit.

To lure volunteers, the Army will even “provide new recruits with down payment assistance for their first home,” Harvey said.

The record-setting bonuses come as the Army fell more than 6,000 recruits short of its goal of 80,000 in the last fiscal year amid warnings from recruiters that the nation’s youth are increasingly reluctant to join up and risk going to Iraq.

“Some have said the Army is severely stretched; a few have even described it as broken,” Harvey said at a Pentagon briefing. “I believe these comments are incorrect.”

Re-enlistments last year were the highest in over five years “and this trend remains strong,” Harvey said. More than 69,500 soldiers chose to “re-up” last year and “this enabled the Army to just about make up for the shortfalls in recruiting.”

The recruiting deficit in the Army last year was the first since 1999 and the largest in 26 years.