Air Force gives airmen just days to reenlist for retention bonus

The Air Drive is shutting down this 12 months’s selective retention bonus program, and airmen who need to reenlist and get a bonus have lower than 5 days to take action.

The service launched the fiscal 2025 bonus program final December. In an announcement Thursday, the service mentioned retention charges have been excessive, and the service is already projected to totally run by the budgeted quantity of bonuses.

Airmen whose jobs are on the checklist of Air Drive specialty codes eligible for bonuses have till Might 20 to reenlist or lengthen their enlistment. They may get their full bonus, the service mentioned.

“Air Drive-wide enlisted retention ranges proceed to fulfill and, in some AFSCs [Air Force specialty codes], exceed sustainment wants,” the Air Drive mentioned. “These larger retention charges led to extra airmen utilizing the SRB program, which is predicted to make the most of your entire funds for this system for FY25.”

The Air Drive’s 2025 bonus program included 89 jobs, and are supposed to maintain on to skilled airmen in essential fields that require a substantial amount of preliminary coaching and hard qualification requirements. These jobs embody AFSCs within the upkeep, aircrew, cyber, medical and particular operations areas, similar to pararescuemen, tactical air management get together and fight controllers.

A memo posted on-line on the unofficial Fb web page Air Drive amn/nco/snco mentioned Area Drive guardians won’t be affected by the change.

Discover a checklist of the 89 jobs impacted right here.