Report: $1 billion in enlistment bonuses paid last year

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon poured more than $1 billion into bonuses last year to keep soldiers and Marines in the military in the face of an unpopular war and battlefield deployments that are getting longer and more frequent.

The incentives -- including tax-free payments for those who re-enlist while in the war zone -- have jumped nearly sixfold since 2003, the year the war in Iraq began...

The size and number of bonuses have grown as officials scrambled to meet the steady demand for troops on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan and reverse sporadic shortfalls in the number of National Guard and Reserve soldiers willing to sign on for multiple tours.

Read the rest at the LA Times

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