Tommy Tuberville Asks Military Official About Offering Targeted Bonus To Boost Retention

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) questioned Lieutenant General Brian S. Eifler, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel for the United States Army, about offering targeted bonuses for service members.

Transcript

00:00I have one more question here before we finish, mainly for the NDAA, specifically

00:05talking about bonuses and special pays, retention. Obviously you all want to recruit new people but

00:11we also have to recruit the people we already have in the service. So I'll start, General Miller,

00:1824 NDAA, Congress authorized the Air Force to increase aviation retention bonuses up to $50,000

00:26for pilots who agreed to extend their contracts earlier than initially planned. Could you give us

00:32some kind of update on the status of how these are working? Yes, Senator. Actually they're working

00:38incredibly well. We are right now across our rated population, we are where we need to be with

00:43exception of the 11Fs which are fighters. However, we have completely closed the gap based on a lot of

00:51it is the bonuses, the aviation bonuses. Additionally, we're doing, we're looking at the how the trainers

00:58were a little bit short on the trainers. So we're training by simulators too and we're finding that

01:03we're closing that gap and we expect that we will get there relatively quickly. But thank you very much

01:08for that NDAA. It's been very helpful. Yeah. So we'll start down here, General. Just what you think in

01:14recruiting wise in terms of bonuses for retention? Or what do you think we could do in the future for

01:22just normal recruiting? Yeah, I think the support for the future soldier prep course has been great.

01:28That's tapped into another population that we haven't been able to access before. Funding for that,

01:34and again, I hate to keep beating that horse on the funding for that, those type of things that are

01:42not accounted for typically in the budget cycle. So I think that support the bonuses. Obviously,

01:48that's huge for retention as well as recruiting and getting the people that we want to get into

01:53the service. I think if you continue to get that support and oversight for us, that'll be definitely

02:00helpful. Senator, thanks for the question and allowing me to build the ability to highlight the

02:07importance of these special incentive pays, the bonuses and such. It's incredibly important to

02:13the retention game. We're doing very well in retention, but we're still short in our manpower accounts

02:18right now. So we're going to have to move some money around to make sure we meet our obligations to

02:22our sailors and we don't get to the point where we create an IOU situation. I would like to highlight,

02:28as we move into FY26, if we start the year with a continuing resolution in FY26, this will be

02:34problematic for that account. Right now, you know, I appreciate the 10% pay raise for our junior

02:40illicit sailors. That's funded for FY25 only. If we move into FY26 with a CR only, it'll severely depress

02:47the manpower account and I will have trouble paying those bonuses which are obligated to our sailors.

02:52Thank you. General? Senator Tubble, thanks very much for this question. The aviation bonuses,

02:57so are all the other bonuses, as Vice Admiral Cheeseman had mentioned, the selective retention

03:02bonus. Some of our really exquisite skilled senior enlisted and middle grade enlisted that have cyber

03:08signals intelligence, those type are really difficult to retain. But for the pilots, in a sense,

03:14the bonuses are, it's kind of a combined arms effect. It's the bonuses are important, but it's also

03:20climate, culture, and it really just selling that, hey, flying a commercial aircraft is one thing,

03:25but flying a gray aircraft with a trigger is another thing. And we got to have the bonuses,

03:31that's important, but it's climate and culture as well. Thanks for your support there. Ms. Kelly?

03:35Senator, I would add for the Space Force, the targeted bonuses are crucial. The space,

03:39cyber, and intel skill sets that is essentially the guardian population that we have in the Space Force

03:45are exquisite skills themselves and much like the other colleagues here today. The ability to retain

03:52and attract and hold that type of exquisite skill is critical. The targeted incentives help us do that.

04:00You just go to General Miller and say, well, who's your best one? I need your best ones, right?

04:04She does that, right? Yeah, I would too. People, people want to join the Space Force, sir.

04:10Hey, thank you. I apologize for all the rigmarole here, but we were, we got more hearings and people in,

04:17you notice the lines outside, they're, they're rather big, but thank you for what you do. You have a great

04:22responsibility. I don't think people really understand that. The responsibility is, you know,

04:26you win with people and, you know, obviously we got weapons and all that, but you got to have good

04:31people and we thank you for what you do. Admiral Cheeseman, thank you for your service. I will tell

04:37you this. I did the same thing. I retired and after a few weeks, my wife walked by my couch when I

04:45drink coffee one morning. She says, hey, this has been my house for 40 years. Go get you a damn job. So,

04:51yeah. I'm hearing it already. Yes, sir. Oh yeah. But thanks for what you do and we want to help as

04:56much as we can. That's one reason we had this today. A lot of people will watch this on video,

05:03a lot of our members. So, if there's anything that we can do to help in your capacity, we want to help.

05:10We're, you know, we all, all of you know, we're in harm's way every day and it, we've got a lot of enemies

05:19out there, but the bigger and better we have our military, the less problems we'll have because

05:25they don't want to mess with the United States or America and we, we sure want them to know that,

05:30but you're the beginning of it. So, thank you all and look forward to visiting with you and working

05:35with you. Many, many times. Again, Admiral, good luck. This hearing's adjourned. Thank you.

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