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Friday, March 10, 2006
Bonuses prompt hundreds of 48th GIs to reenlist
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Keith Hadley/AJC
Spc. Cora Wilkerson will use $15,000 to make down payment on house. Spc. Brad Shawhan Jr., a model from Atlanta, plans to sink his into a savings plan. • Photos
Convoy Support Center Scania, Iraq — Sgt. Vincent Ferrara stood beside a U.S. flag on the rooftop of his unit’s headquarters here recently, raised his right hand and swore to defend the Constitution.
The oath took less than half a minute. In that time, Ferrara pledged six more years to the Georgia Army National Guard and netted a $15,000 bonus — tax free because he re-enlisted in a combat zone.
Ferrara is among more than 700 soldiers of the 48th Brigade Combat Team who have reenlisted since the unit went to Iraq last June, said 1st Lt. Selena Owens, a spokesman for the brigade.
Despite the risk of death or serious injury and the hardships of a year away from friends and families, soldiers are reeinlisting in part for the money that for some will mean a down payment on a home, a new car or a nest egg for the future.
Soldiers who re-enlist for six years while in a combat zone can get $15,000 tax free — an incentive that may soon be bumped to $20,000. A three-year re-enlistment nets the soldier $7,500.
Although Georgia National Guard officials were able to verify only 235 of the re-enlistments with bonuses totaling nearly $3 million, they said there is often a time lag between the signing and verification of it when a unit is deployed.
Since December 2004, when re-enlistment bonuses were tripled, more than $7 million in bonuses have been handed out to 48th Brigade soldiers, said Sgt. Maj. Jeff Dawkins of the Georgia Guard’s Recruiting and Retention Battalion.
Military recruiters say they have not surveyed soldiers about how much the bonuses are influencing their decisions, but they believe the money obviously helps fence-sitters make up their minds.
Ferrara, who has already served nine years in the military, said he would have re-enlisted without the bonus. But he can use the extra cash now.
His family — with five children ages 3 to 13 — is operating on one income since his wife is studying to become a nurse. And, Ferrara said, his civilian employer, Delta Air Lines, has slashed his pay because of financial troubles.
“I need the bonus,” said Ferrara, 40, of Augusta, who works as a Delta reservations supervisor. “We have been taking pay cut after pay cut for the past few years.”
Persuading soldiers to re-enlist in the Guard is an ongoing effort, even in a combat zone.
“We’ve had nothing but a huge success over there,” said Sgt. Maj. Anthony Weeks, also with the Georgia Guard’s Recruiting and Retention Battalion. “The numbers are extremely good.”
On a recent dreary night at Tallil Air Base in southern Iraq, several 48th Brigade soldiers showed up at the post chapel to listen to two recruitment officers. The recruiters make their pitch twice a day at various military bases hoping to persuade deployed soldiers to give a few more years of their lives in service for their country.
The bottom line, they tell the soldiers: “It’s government money. It’s free. Take it.”
“The bonus plays a significant part. I kid you not,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jerrell Wright, an Arkansas National Guard soldier. “The financial incentives are definitely there. But then there’s pride, integrity.”
The Army’s retention efforts, said Wright, were “vital” and “essential.” Especially so since the war in Iraq has apparently kept young Americans away from the military and the number of new Army recruits has dwindled. In the last fiscal year, the Army fell more than 6,000 recruits short of its goal of 80,000, the largest deficit in 26 years.
But record bonuses have helped convince soldiers already serving to reenlist, despite the knowledge that they might someday be sent back to Iraq.
“The risk went up dramatically when they deployed. The reward needed to keep pace with the increased risks we are asking of an American soldier,” said Lt. Col. Mike Jones, deputy division chief for Army Guard recruiting and retention at the National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Va.
Nationwide, National Guard reenlistments increased by 26 percent in the first year after Congress tripled the bonuses, according to National Guard Bureau figures. Those numbers have been aided by the fact that soldiers are now able to reenlist up to their 21st year of service and still be eligible for the bonuses, something they were not able to do prior to this year, said the 48ths Owens.
“They are very effective. Soldiers often cite those bonuses,” said Maj. Gen. David B. Poythress, commander of the Georgia National Guard. “I don’t think there are any of them who signed up purely for the bonuses. But the bonuses make it a lot easier to sell to parents or to the spouses. The fact that it is tax free makes it that much sweeter.”
Spc. Cora Wilkerson, 23, of Portal, agreed.
Wilkerson, a soldier in the 648th Engineer Battalion and a criminal justice student at Georgia Southern University, wants to become an officer. She said she would use the $15,000 to make a down payment on a house when she returns to Georgia.
The bonuses are tax-free for soldiers as long as they reenlist in a combat zone. They are supposed to get the money within 90 days of the end of their current contracts. And the cash can be directly deposited into their checking accounts.
But many of the Georgia soldiers are not eligible to reenlist while deployed since they have to be within one year of the expiration dates on their current contracts, said Owens, the 48th Brigade spokeswoman.
Spc. Brad Shawhan Jr., a model from Atlanta, plans to sink his $15,000 into a savings plan.
“Not that $15,000 is a lot of money, but it’s an opportunity to get it tax free,” said Shawhan, also a soldier in the 648th.
Immediately after reenlisting, many soldiers cite their sense of duty and their bonds with fellow soldiers.
Shawhan, a former Marine, said it was important for him to stay connected to the military, even though his parents were not entirely pleased about his reenlisting.
“The bonds you make here are unlike those in the civilian world,” he said. “I have been shot at with other people. That brings you closer together. I feel almost obligated to my fellow soldiers.”
Jeremy Redmon reported from Iraq, Moni Basu from Atlanta.
Doctors remove fluid near Noor’s brain
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Surgeons at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta operated successfully this morning on Noor al-Zahra, the Iraqi infant brought to metro Atlanta with a severe form of spina bifida.
The hospital said in a statement that the baby was resting comfortably, with plans to stay overnight for observation.
Doctors inserted a shunt to drain a build-up of fluid beside Noor’s brain, the hospital said. Doctors were prepared to insert the shunt after they performed life-changing surgery on Noor two months ago, but they did not find a fluid build-up in the weeks after that operation. A routine check-up this week detected the fluid.
Georgia-based National Guard soldiers with the 48th Brigade Combat Team encountered Noor while raiding a house near Baghdad in December. Moved by her plight, the soldiers made connections that led to a rare trip out of Iraq for the baby, her father and grandmother.
The medical care was arranged by Childspring International, a charity that arranges medical care in the United States for sick children from abroad.
“The family was disappointed with news of more surgery, but they understand and are very grateful that Baby Noor is receiving excellent medical care and support,” said Christina Porter, Childspring’s USA director.
