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Re-enlistment bonus list best in 17 years

The latest round of re-enlistment bonuses is the best news for sailors in at least 17 years.

As a result, thousands of regular and full-time support sailors will qualify for a bonus or have their award levels increased.

“I have never seen a major update ... where everything is good news,” said Chief Electronics Technician (SW/AW) Scott McCann, who coordinates re-enlistment incentives at the Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tenn.

Unlike recent SRB lists, there weren’t a marked number of bonus level decreases or eliminations on this latest update; just two bonuses were eliminated. As a result, the aggregate list is as positive as anyone can remember.

Navy officials do not track such data, but a search of Navy Times archives indicates the last such occurrence — when the news was good for all sailors — was 1990.

The only two decreases on this list were the elimination of two obsolete Naval Enlisted Classifications that already had been absorbed into other specialties.

In all, 155 award levels saw an increase in their payouts while 38 were newly added to the list.

In addition, sailors in the Reserve full-time support community also saw an increase, with two existing award levels hiked and eight new ratings added to the list.

“We have sailors who are now getting SRB who didn’t get it before and others who are now getting more SRB than they anticipated,” McCann said.

Already, he said, his office has reworked SRB approval for re-enlistments scheduled to happen through the end of June.

“My sailors have gone through each pending SRB request, and if the multiple has been raised, we have re-approved it at the higher level and have sent out new messages to impacted commands,” he said.

But that’s not the only news coming out of NavAdmin 125/07, which was given final approval May 18. Officials have now changed the rules to allow the Navy’s new “hybrid” sailors to collect bonuses for skills outside the rating they wear on their sleeve.

“We’ve been fighting for that one for quite a while,” McCann said. “For example, we have [operations specialists] who hold [quartermaster] NECs, and they’re doing a QM job or vice versa — so the argument was that if they’re already doing the job that brings in a higher award level, then why can’t they have it? And now they can.”

Moving up

Right now, the hottest career field in the Navy is the newly created explosive ordnance rating.

As a result, three EOD Naval Enlisted Classifications have joined the elite list of those eligible for the $75,000 payout – the highest allowed in the Navy.

That’s a domain the Navy’s normally reserved for nuclear-power-qualified sailors, though last fall, SEALs were added to that list as well.

“Those skills are probably the Navy’s most needed and hard to fill at the moment,” McCann said.

Moving up this update into the $60,000 award level are cryptologic technician (interpretive) sailors with the 9209 NEC of basic Farsi linguist. Previously, the NEC was in the $45,000 category.

Not only did their maximum award level increase, but for those in Zone A, their multiple increased from 3 to 4; in Zone B, the multiple went from 2 up slightly to 2.5.

At the $45,000 award level, all sailors in the legalman rating in both Zone A and Zone B qualify for some bonus at a multiple of 1. In addition, all those from the storekeeper rating will rate a multiple of 1.0 in Zone A.

Advanced electronics is another hot field, McCann said: First-term sailors in 44 Naval Enlisted Classifications will now rate a bonus multiple of 5 — all up one point from the last update — and 21 of those are from the electronics technician rating, including three that entered the list in this update.

The remaining 23 increasing NECs are from the fire controlman rating, where six new NECs hopped on the list.

“We’ve got a few new DDGs being built and need sailors in these skills for the pre-commissioning crews,” McCann said.

Full-time support

For the full-time support reservists, the news is finally good. After taking a cut in bonuses last fall, FTS re-enlistment bonuses are back this update, with seven ratings and one NEC joining the list.

Aircrew sailors holding the P-3 flight engineer NEC of 8351 are now on the list with a multiple 2.5 in Zone A, 3.0 in Zone B and 1.5 in Zone C.

In addition, Zone A sailors in the aviation machinist’s mate, electrician’s mate, engineman, hull maintenance technician, information systems technician and machinery repairman classifications now qualify for a bonus multiple of 1.0.

That good news also applies to those electronics technicians in Zone B, who also have a bonus level of 1.0.

FTS bonus levels are restricted to a total of $45,000, but few sailors can qualify for the full amount, as the service limits them to a four-year enlistment if they take the bonus.

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Find your bonus level on the Navy’s payout chart.