Making an “Interesting Point”

In prepared remarks, Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt, Air National Guard director, told lawmakers this week that he wanted to “make an interesting point” about incentives. He first described one of the Air Guard’s tactical air control party specialists who “recently returned from a fifth deployment overseas in Afghanistan,” where he “led 19 close air support missions for nine operations, spent more than 135 hours outside the wire on combat patrol, and successfully prosecuted 18 precision strikes on enemy positions that saved American lives under fire.” Wyatt then stated, “In the Air National Guard this skill set is in such great demand we offer a re-enlistment bonus of $15,000, but only for re-enlistments of six years.” He followed with this clincher: “If the same skill set were to re-enlist in the Regular Air Force, it would qualify for a $90,000 bonus to re-enlist for three years.”