For Fast Recruits, a Fast $20K

"Quick Ship" bonus meant to remedy enlistee shortage
By Caroline Zimmerman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 5, 2007 12:23 PM CDT
For Fast Recruits, a Fast $20K
U.S. Army soldiers from Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, talk during their census operation in the Amariyah neighborhood of west Baghdad, Iraq on Friday, Aug. 3, 2007. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)   (Associated Press)

An understaffed Army is testing out a tidy bonus to entice enlistees who agree to ship out to basic training within 30 days of signing up. The Army will be offering the $20K "Quick Ship" bonus until September to try and reach an increasingly ambitious recruiting goal of 80,000.

But the Army isn't advertising the offer—rather, it hopes news will spread by word of mouth among those already considering signing up. "You won't find somebody coming in straight off the street," one recruiter told the Chicago Tribune. "I don't want to put someone in the Army strictly because they hear about the $20,000," he added, "but money talks." (More US Army stories.)

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