Army is offering $20,000 to 80,000 recruits to 'quick ship'

Left: New recruits swear in. If the Army reaches its goal, the cost will amount to $1.6 billion above and beyond regular enlistment bonuses.

Struggling to fill the ranks in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Army is now trying a new incentive: offering new and returning enlistees up to $20,000 "Q.S." bonuses in exchange for a promise to ship out quickly to basic training within 30 days of signing on the dotted line.

The bonus -- "Q.S." for "quick-ship" -- has already had some success in the 10 days since the Army started offering it.

With less than two months to go until the end of the federal fiscal year, the Army is scrambling to meet recruiting goals of 80,000 new soldiers in basic training before Sept. 30.

One of the new quick-shippers, Howard Cable, 20, and his soon-to-be brother-in-law, John Tutorow, 21, walked into the Army Recruiting Battalion in South Bend, Ind., just as the new program got under way.

"I was a student, and it was just getting way too expensive," said Cable, who would have been starting his junior year at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., in the fall. "I had a job, but it wasn't really what I wanted."

Read the rest at the Chicago Tribune

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