Thousands of sailors assigned to the Bush Carrier Strike Group and the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group should see their first Hardship Duty Pay–Tempo payments in their Dec. 15 paycheck — just in time for the holidays.
The long-deployment pay starts after 220 days straight deployed, at $16.50 a day up to a monthly total of $495.
“Keeping with the promised timeline, all of the necessary deployment tracking and pay process adjustments are just about complete,” said Cmdr. Chris Servello, spokesman for the chief of naval personnel. “We expect to begin making HDP-T payments in the December mid-month pay.”
The pay for extended deployments was approved on Sept. 17, the first day the Bataan ARG sailors and Marines could qualify. They have been accruing credit for this and will start getting the pay in December once the pay processing is set up. Any others who have qualified since the pay was approved will also start seeing it in mid-December and going forward.
Servello said the ships and squadrons of the Bush CSG and the Bataan ARG comprise the bulk of those who’ll get paid first.
Bataan ARG sailors are expected to get a windfall of about $750 in mid-December from their nearly 9-month deployment.
Sailors serving as individual augmentees or with the Fleet Marine Force or special operations forces who are still deployed will get their pay once they return to the United States.
