Now that the US army is offering $50,000 bonuses to anyone who signs up, can the US Army still be.............

Question

called an all volunteer force or would they now be considered mercenaries due to the signing bonuses they now get?

And any of you that have served in the military, did you get $50,000 to sign up?

Answer 1

The get paid. That doesn't make them mercenaries. If they were making less some would whine that they were being exploited.

Answer 2

The Army is in a desperate recruiting situation and needs the current bonus to encourage the Nintendo generation to get away from their televisions and join. Bonuses are offered as you reenlist in the Army as well, depending on the Army's need for your chosen job field. The Army is currently offering a bonus to join the Army.....not a bonus to go to war. If they were offering a bonus to go to Iraq......then I could see the point to your mercenary question but they are not. You are still volunteering to enlist and have free choice of your career field and station.

Answer 3

We do not get to pick our jobs unless you are a nurse, doctor, lawyer or chaplin. Doctors get a bonus pay, but it is not like an enlistment bonus, its part of thier pay. Recently, they were offering a bonus to Captains to stay in. The program was being evaluated still. This is the Army only though. In general, no bonuses. For our job, we submit our top 10 choices for a job and its matched to needs of that service. Air Force is a little different in how they get thier jobs and pilot is a seperate program. A lot of us had scholarships or academy apointments, so that is kind of like a bonus. Not all do that though, some go through OCS and some just paid for college themselves and go through ROTC. You do not have to have a scholarship to do ROTC. OCS officers do not get bonuses either. The only exception was the Captian bonus.

Answer 4

My bet is the $50,000 is reserved for jobs that are extremely hard to fill..linguistics, communications and the like. I have not heard..nor can the military afford..to pay $50,000 to each new enlistee. Also, most bonuses are not paid in a lump sum. You would get part of it when you finished your basic training and then the rest paid out on your enlistment anniversry or at the completion of your enlistment contract. The money is taxable, so you can count on loosing nearly one quarter of it to the IRS. Finally, all branches have gotten highly selective, even with the surge, and the bonus is aimed at getting in people who not only want to serve, but have the skills and abilities needed in our tech heavy military.

Answer 5

I'm gonna have to raise the BS flag on that, where did you get your information?
The ONLY people who come close to that kind of money are people in specialty fields such as EOD, which require extensive schooling (with a huge washout rate), not to mention the reason their enlistment bonus is so high is that they get deployed and redeployed over and over again.
The current absolute maximum you can get for the active army is the 25,000 dollar cap for a three year enlistee. and that's more of a recruiting scam than anything else, a 98XL-Signals Foreign Language Enlistment Option has one of the highest bonus options at $15,000.
But always keep in mind, these career Fields are very difficult to keep manned, personally I think they should be given over to contractors but what can you do?
The most you're going to ge under the army, is with the $20,000 “quick-ship” bonus program, under this program, you essentially sign up for at least 15 months in Iraq or Afghanistan doing grunt work.

The "50,000 entitlement" program that you're thinking of is a lie made by, to be quite honest, stupid people. It includes the GI bill, housing allowances, base pay, tax write-offs, and assumed military discounts.

Additionally to answer the second part of your question, I've been in the military 4 years, they gave me a $1,500 dollar enlistment bonus, a gun, and a ticket to Iraq 3 times.

Answer 6

Of Course it can still be called Voluntary, do you see anyone being forced into the Service?

No Draft

No Enlist or serve prison time

Free Will

therefore Voluntary


As to Bonuses, always turned them down in My 26 years so far......

Answer 7

"...the US army is offering $50,000 bonuses to anyone who signs up"

That is a lie.
First, not everyone even qualifies for a bonus at all.
Second, the max combined total of all bonuses cannot exceed 30k, and those few jobs that carry such bonuses, such as translators and Special Forces, are so scarce that few people would qualify.
Finally, America has always had a professional Army -- often consisting of draftees. Today's Army is all-volunteer.

Professional soldiers fight for their country at rates of pay that put them near the poverty level. They aren't in it for the money.

Mercenaries are guns for hire, fighting for the highest bidder; often earning six figures.

Answer 8

actually it is 20,000 bonuses for quick ship, u see the army is calendar is run on 4 quarters nov-jan 1st quarter, feb-april 2ND quarter, may-july 3rd quarter, aug-oct 4Th quarter. now this bonuses is only good if u ship before oct 1 also can qualify for more bonuses money up to 50,000. you see The army is coming up on the last of the year but they must meet 80,000 plus troops by the end of the 4th quarter which is the end of the year for the army

Answer 9

I'm not sure where you got your "facts." However if you check out the military web sites, you will see that you are mistaken.

Our US Army personnel are not "mercenaries".....they are men and women that are protecting our FREEDOM.

Maybe try signing up yourself and get INVOLVED!

Wife of Special Forces Man!

Answer 10

The US army is still considered a volunteer army cus trust me even after the Iraq debacle this bonus thing will be gone.

Answer 11

we are still a voluntary military we have always been paid to do our job just as anyone else we get bonuses to sign up for our job just like any job that has a lot of risk like athletes