$US3000 enlistment bonus

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32524, 6 February 1971, Page 5

$US3000 enlistment bonus

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, Feb. 3. The Pentagon has proposed providing semiprivate rooms with rugs and lamps for soldiers and marines and a SUS3OOO enlistment bonus for combat infantry as part of a programme to create an allvolunteer Army.

The SUSIO,SOOm proposal was explained in detail to the Senate Armed Services Committee at an all-day hearing. The chairman of the committee (Senator John Stennis) denounced the plan as “a flight from reality,” saying that would create “an army of drop-outs, misfits and ne’er-do-wells.” But the Secretary of Defence (Mr Melvin Laird) contended that it would create a more highly-skilled

and efficient armed force. “Even with the recent military pay rise, the monetary value of basic pay and allowances, as well as the tax advantage of a recruit at the time of completion of basic training, is about SUS27OO a year,” said Mr Laird.

“Compare this with the entering pay, of SUS9SOO a year, received by a policeman in New York City. Compare it even with the Federally-established mini-

mum wage, which amounts to SUS33OO at an annual rate. It becomes clear that we are grossly underpaying our entering servicemen.”

TO END DRAFT The Assistant Secretary of Defence (Mr Roger Kelley) told the committee that the proposal, besides a 50 per cent pay increase for new recruits already announced, would include innovations to make service life more attractive, and eliminate the need for the draft by mid--1973.

Among the proposed innovations were:

A SUS3OOO bonus to men who enlist for at least three years in the Army infantry, artillery and armour - combat programmes, and SUSIOOO each after the first and

second year if still qualified. Expenditure of SUS6Bm to improve Army and Marine Corps barracks — partitioning 50-man open bays into two and threeman rooms, including a desk, chair, rug and lamp. Special pay incentives to reward superior performance, compensate for hazardous duty, attract skilled men in short supply and induce re-enlistment. An increase from SUSSO to SUSIOO a month for subsistence allowances to college Reserve Officer Training Corp scholarship holders. Reimbursement to recruiters for out-of-pocket expenses such as buying coffee for prospective recruits and feeding parking metres for their cars.