The Coast Guard has announced Fiscal Year 2025 bonuses and incentives for active duty and reserve members.
These incentives – which are both monetary and non-monetary – are based on the Military Workforce Planning Team (MWPT)’s annual assessment of the service’s recruiting, retention and assignment needs. They are in effect from Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025.
Additionally, the MWPT has suspended High Year Tenure until 2027.
Authorized monetary incentives include:
- Enlistment bonuses (EB) – for culinary specialists (CS), electrician’s mate (EM), electronics technician (ET), machinery technicians (MK), and operations specialists (OS). Health service technicians (HS) with certain credentials can also get an EB for lateral entry. Applicants with college credit or previous Department of Defense (DoD) experience, or who agree to quick-ship to certain boot camp convenings also qualify for an EB.
- Designated Career Field bonuses (DCFB) – for culinary specialists (CS), electrician’s mate (EM), electronics technician (ET), machinery technicians (MK), and operations specialists (OS).
- Critical Skills Retention bonuses (CSRB) – for some enlisted ratings as well as some officer and chief warrant officer specialties, qualifications, and assignments. CSRBs are also available for certain cyber and afloat positions, and others with specific qualifications and assignments.
- Aviation bonuses (AvB) – pilots O-4 and below who serve on designated operations and certain pilots at O-5 level qualify for bonuses.
Authorized non-monetary incentives include:
- For enlisted: guaranteed A-schools for critical rates, tour length increases or two-year extensions at designated units for certain rates, suspension of HYT, SWE points for certain assignments.
- For officers: tour length increases or two-year extensions at designated units for certain specialties, elective airframe transition for certain pilots.
You can find details, eligibility requirements, and service obligations — and see if you qualify — on the Selective Reenlistment Bonus (SRB) page of the Pay & Personnel Center (PPC), Military Accounts Support (MAS) website.
Bonus agreement forms will be available Oct. 1 in the Coast Guard Official Forms directory.
Can I get more than one bonus?
Multiple enlistment bonuses (EB) for the same period of service, known as bonus stacking, may be authorized. But these cannot exceed the statutory cap of $75,000 per recruit. Coast Guard Recruiting Command will authorize bonus stacking for eligible applicants.
Where to go with questions:
- For more details on bonus procedures, please review ALCOAST 325/24 and the Coast Guard Military Bonus and Incentive Programs Instruction.
- Talk with your Chief or Silver Badge well in advance of your reenlistment or extension date to ensure you have all the information to make a good decision.
- You can also chat with your P&A office, Work-Life staff, and senior yeoman.
- For questions that still cannot be answered, ask your command to contact the Office of Military Policy at: HQSPolicyandStandards@uscg.mil.
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