Pentagon weighing $250,000 bonuses,
higher recommended recruit age in
bid to transform the US infantry
Fox News,
by
Greg Norman
Original Article
Posted By: earlybird,
7/8/2019 12:22:22 PM
The U.S. is looking to transform its infantry into a higher-caliber fighting machine – and one that takes home a significantly bigger paycheck, too.
Officials in the Pentagon's Close Combat Lethality Task Force are considering recommending that those recruited for the infantry should be no younger than 26 – so they can gather more life experience before enlisting – and that they should be offered a $60,000 annual salary with $250,000 bonuses,(Snip)
"There is truth in this fact that we have not paid great attention to this idea of specially selecting people and incentivizing infantrymen
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Nevadadad46 7/8/2019 12:35:35 PM (No. 117570)
The days of mass human wave attacks and trenches are over. Robots will run the battlefields of tomorrow. Statistics and logistics will be the key to winning battles rather than blood and guts. "Soldiers" will become "Station Operators" commanding mechanical extensions of themselves. They will fight their wars from computer consoles wearing exoskeleton input frames, while their real-self extension mobilizer crawls up the beaches, smashing enemy robots with huge clubs and 40mm automated hypervelocity cannons. At the end of their shift, in Miami, Dallas, and Hawaii they will be relieved by their co-workers, to go home to wife and kids and play golf on weekends to keep their stamina and flexibility in shape.
As sci-fi as that all sounds, it is already being done with the high-flying armed drones and satellite communications. It is only a short time until a single solider will command an air-dropped battle-bot into an insurgent's area and walks through the ruins of their cities, smashing, burning and slaughtering. such "tech workers" will have to have much better tech abilities and game-play skills. That dummy with a rifle offering up his life for his country will no longer be a battlefield necessity.
3 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
GO3 7/8/2019 12:49:13 PM (No. 117599)
I think regardless of technology employed, at some point action on the ground will be required. The environment described by #1 in my mind is akin to Starship Troopers (the book, not the movie). Even there, an infantryman was controlling a chunk of ground though much larger and more networked than today.
What is disturbing is that someone at the Pentagon just figured out that we need to incentivize infantry, though I say all the combat arms to some degree. Maybe this was common sense somewhere in the bowels of the five-sided puzzle palace, but never made it to policy given civilian and military politics.
5 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
spacer 7/8/2019 1:08:08 PM (No. 117615)
If they are just now reporting this, it's been going for awhile.
2 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Terry_tr6 7/8/2019 1:27:38 PM (No. 117636)
my son went Navy ROTC for college and made the cut to get assigned to submarine officer as a nuclear engineer. Pay is pretty good but life is pretty rough. you move locations every 3 or 6 months and every other location is active sailing so there is no time off when underway. he should get his dolphins in a couple months and i imagine in 2 years when his enlistment is up there will be a pretty big check offered to re-u. but believe me, he works for his money. 12 and 16 hr shifts are the rule and sometimes one or no days off.
4 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
HotRod 7/8/2019 1:28:09 PM (No. 117638)
The problem with depending upon robots to fight wars is that they cannot think or exercise judgement. Those are traits that are hard to cultivate in humans, which happens as a leader develops. Not even AI is thinking. It is still a computer, sorting 0 and 1 for pre-determined choices. It ''remembers'' (learns) previous circumstances and outcomes, but it's still a computer. There is a whole lot more to fighting than black and white choices. Any gray areas, where choices are not clearly definable, would only confuse the robot, even if it can ''learn'' We will always need humans in positions where thinking is required.
1 person likes this.
Get 'em young. Get them male. Train them up. Cut out the "family" nonsense. Get rid of the excess manpower. Pay them what they're worth. Use them only as necessary, and with very loose "rules of engagement".
The older the troop the less likely one can be trained to be fearless and lethal in the face of danger. It runs against military history since Day One.
4 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Strike3 7/8/2019 1:34:10 PM (No. 117646)
The mainstream military is always running a few decades behind because those at the top of the command structure do things the way that they were taught. In Navy Boot Camp I spent more time folding clothes and shining shoes than on actual military training. I was so unimpressed with the waste of time and talent that I opted out of Annapolis in disgust. We started in Vietnam thinking that tanks were going to control the jungles and swamps. We had SEALs killed in Panama by ordering them to attack an airport stronghold over open ground without cover. We drowned a few in Grenada by dropping them into a rough ocean at night when they could have easily been deployed on land. Tradition is good but always doing things the old way is ingrained and sometimes not the best way. Drones and pilotless jet fighters and bombers will fight future wars but we had better be prepared for a lot more collateral damage than we accept today.
5 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
DVC 7/8/2019 1:38:26 PM (No. 117654)
The robot war thing is an absolute fantasy at this point, just exactly like "self driving cars", science fiction with a whole hell of a lot more fiction than science. Someday maybe, but we are nowhere near the movie fiction stuff that too many imagine are "just around the corner". They are NOT.
I think bringing back the draft would be a good thing, although the whiny ones will not do too well.
We do need smart, skilled fighting men, and they will be doing the work on the battlefields for quite some time, with the help of a lot of technology, but still - at the pointy end of the spear, it is still the rifleman who takes and holds the ground.
2 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Hermit_Crab 7/8/2019 2:02:00 PM (No. 117675)
Perfumed Princes strike again.
Pure idiocy.
By the time you are 26 it is time to start thinking about getting out of the Infantry. Sure , older guys can do it, but it is that much tougher. I was 23 when I went to Ranger School, and they considered me 'the old man'.
Infantry is a young man's game.
I could see maybe a $10,000 bonus... In my day there was an intermittent $1000 bonus for enlisting / re-enlisting in an MOS that there was a shortage. As a sergeant I got paid around $ 600 a month, with Jump pay and 'pro-pay' (Proficiency bonus ). Sure , there has been a lot of inflation since those days, but that kind of money for 'cannon fodder' is ridiculous.
3 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
PostAway 7/8/2019 2:45:07 PM (No. 117709)
#4, your pride in your son is evident and deserved! Please thank him for his service and thanks to you for raising a child who serves the nation so steadfastly. Also, I hope you don’t mind a little tip: enlisted sailors enlist or re-enlist while officers are commissioned and leave by resigning their commissions.
2 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Upright2 7/8/2019 2:48:25 PM (No. 117713)
I'm not big on awarding taxpayers money for doing jobs for which a recipient is already paid. But, if bonuses are awarded by the government to its employees, far better to a soldier than to a 6 figure bureaucrat.
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Terry_tr6 7/8/2019 3:08:27 PM (No. 117733)
Thanks #10. i didn't serve( a badge of shame that i sadly wear in front of vietnam vets) and as such am still baffled by the ranks and jargon that he swims in.
1 person likes this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
MMC 7/8/2019 5:27:26 PM (No. 117842)
Dear USA Recruiting Office,
What you need Is a Menopausal Mom Empty Nest Brigade:
We take no prisoners, clean up, and clear out..
America First, question second..
Don’t get in our way-
We got this-
MMC reporting for Duty
1 person likes this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
chumley 7/8/2019 5:37:25 PM (No. 117850)
Fifteen years ago there was a two stripe airman in the shop next to mine who was essentially bribed $60k to cross train from plumbing to computers. He was a great plumber but his talents were wasted there. The bonus was paid out over four years as long as he maintained proficiency and didn't mess up. Worked out well for everyone.
0 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
red1066 7/8/2019 6:33:57 PM (No. 117921)
26 is too old to begin an infantry career. Plus, by 26, one is less likely to take the screaming and insults one endures during basic training.
0 people like this.
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And giving them the right skills.