The Money is Almost Gone
This year the Marine Corps brought back “boat spaces” for 1st term Marines that wish to re-enlist. A boatspace is slot or opening for a Marine to re-enlist within the MOS that he has been working in during his first term. The reason for boatspaces is to keep too many Marines from re-enlisting in the MOS.
Boat spaces keep a MOS from getting to top heavy and also keep promotions rolling. Now once an MOS uses up all of its boat spaces Marines can no longer re-enlist in that MOS. All is not lost if the boat spaces in your MOS fill up as a Marine can then “Lat Move” or re-enlist into a new MOS.
The Marine Corps suspended the boat space program over the past two years due to the fact the the Marine Corps needed to grow to 202,00. That changed in fiscal year 2009 (the fiscal year starts in Oct) as the Corps was fast approaching its final end strength goal a few years early.
MARADMIN 052/09 was released on Monday and it addresses the re-enlistment bonuses given to 1st term Marines. In there there is a list of 40+ MOS in the Marine Corps that have filled all of their boat spaces and thus will not be eligible for a re-enlisment bonus 30 days from the release of the message. Those affected are in the following MOS’s:
0121, 0151, 0628, 1341, 1345, 1391, 2111, 2147, 2676, 2887, 3051, 3052, 3531, 4641, 5831, 5942/48, 5952, 6046, 6062, 6072, 6073, 6124, 6172, 6173, 6212, 6216, 6217, 6222, 6252, 6282, 6283, 6286, 6314, 6316, 6324, 6336, 6423, 6432, 6467, 6541, 6694, 7041, 7242 AND 7382.
As I stated earlier Marines in the above MOS’s do not have to get out of the Marine Corps as there are still 111 MOS’s out there that have openings available. Of those 111 some are even eligible for a Lat Move re-enlistment bonus.
the same message also states that Broken Service Selective Re-enlistment Bonus, BSSRB, have been cancelled with the exception of a few critical MOS’s. a BSSRB is a bonus that is paid to a Marine that got out for at least 90 days and then decides to come back in at a prorated rate of the full re-enlistment bonus. The MOSs that are still eligible for a BSSRB are:
0211, 0231, 0241, 0261, 0321, 0431, 0451, 0511, 0656, 0689, 0842, 0861, 2336, 2671, 2673, 2821, 2834, 2871, 6114, 6116, 6156, 6174, 6176, 6214, 6326, 6842, AND 7257
The ending of re-enlistment bonuses is a sign that the Marine Corps has done what it needs to retain the Marines to keep the Corps strong. Also the fact that the Corps has grown to its 202,000 during a time of war is a great testament to our recruiters. Also in my humble opinion I believe the record level bonuses we have seen in the past two years are thing of the past. With the Corps reaching its goal as well as the weakening economy I believe bonuses will be less next year and the following years.
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February 18th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
The Marine!Goth is considering a lat move or an extension to deploy with the idea that the deployment will last long enough for spaces to free up in his MOS.
He says a bonus would be nice, but he just wants to stay in the Corps and not loose any points on his cutting score for Sgt. His original EAS would have been 4 July, but he’s on a 4 plus 4 enlistment, so he’s part of some branch of Uncle Sam’s gun club for 8 regardless. I’m suprisingly OK with him re-enlisting for active duty; the Corps has been good for him so far – starting with the cadet years in High School.
February 18th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
You might want to tell him to be careful. If he extends for a deployment and it goes into the next fiscal year he will probably not be able to re-enlist. If he wants to stay Marine then he needs to re-enlist during this fiscal year (before Oct 1st). A Lat move (job change) would not take anything away from him as far as getting Sgt. There are jobs out there that he can move into that will give him a bonus. If he is qualified he should look into one of those. MOS 2844 (radio tech) is a good job and hey he could even come work for me once he got out of school. If he has any questions have him contact me here.
The Jarhead
April 14th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
You seem to be very knowledgable on this subject so maybe you could help me with something I enlisted in sept06 I am in Iraq now and I am trying to find a way to reenlist here so my bonus would be tax free the problem is I leave in sept is there a waiver or any way I would be eligable to reup sooner than oct any info would help because no one I talk to seems to know very much by the way my mos is 0481 and is not closed out yet Thanks for anyhelp