Schofield Barracks has paid out $13.9 million in re-enlistment bonuses to soldiers this fiscal year, compared with $4 million last year, officials said.

The payments are part of a Pentagon program to address burnout among experienced troops who have to make repeat deployments, and who can make as much or more money in the private sector.

The Army also is attempting to grow from 482,000 to 547,000 soldiers in five years, and the Marines are increasing their ranks from 180,000 to 202,000.

The Pentagon's bonus pool to recruit and retain troops has risen sharply since fiscal 2003, when the outlay was $759 million, according to Air Force Times. By 2006, the total budget had more than doubled, to almost $1.6 billion.

The need for more service members and more experience comes as retention of West Point graduates has hit a 30-year low and the Army is 50 percent short of senior captains, according to one defense analyst.

The payouts are expected to stay high as long as the nation remains at war. Navy diver Beau Anderson, 29, who's with Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit One at Pearl Harbor, picked up $45,000 for re-upping for four more years.

"I did real estate. I bought a couple houses and I rent them out," Anderson said. "I was extremely happy with it."

Cpl. Antonio Gonzalez, 23, an asset manager at the Kane'ohe Bay Marine Corps base, recently re-enlisted and collected a lump-sum bonus of $22,500. After taxes, he pocketed about $18,000.

Sgt. Jeffrey Townsend, a career retention specialist with Marine Aircraft Group 24 at Kane'ohe Bay, said the minimum bonus for a re-enlisting Marine is $10,000.

At the other end of the spectrum, a Marine with 18 years in explosive ordnance disposal — a job in high demand — can collect $80,000.

"This is the highest amount of bonuses that we've ever seen given out," Townsend said.

KEEPING SOLDIERS IN

More than 7,000 Schofield soldiers deployed to northern Iraq in July and August of 2006, and many had waited to re-enlist in a war zone and receive the bonus tax-free. But the Army turned off the tap at about the same time they arrived, officials said.

The bonus money began to flow again after the start of the new fiscal year in October, and with it came a flood of re-enlistments reflected in this year's total.

"With how things are going with the war on terrorism, Congress is doing whatever they can to keep soldiers in and stay longer," said Sgt. 1st Class Royden Shelton, a career counselor with the 25th Infantry Division.

The more years a soldier has in, the greater a bonus can be, Shelton said. Factors, including how many years a soldier is re-enlisting for, also make a difference, but the big payouts come for the high-demand jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Soldiers in military intelligence can get up to $40,000, satellite communications experience can bring $25,000 to $30,000, and an explosive ordnance disposal background also can mean up to $40,000, Shelton said.

The Army is predicting it will meet its re-enlistment goals in all categories by the end of September, the close of the fiscal year. The bonuses have provided a boost.

Michael Dominguez, the Defense Department's principal undersecretary for personnel and readiness, said in August that the Army has exceeded its overall re-enlistment goals, although there continued to be shortfalls in some categories.

The Marines also were on track to make their re-enlistment totals.

But some service members are calling it quits after multiple deployments and uncertainty over time back with families in between.

Sgt. Cynthia Archibald, a Schofield soldier who works in military intelligence and is at Kirkuk Air Base in northern Iraq, is re-enlisting to get assigned to a Mainland base and avoid another tour in Iraq, said her husband, Seth Kirchbaum.

Under her current contract, she'll have more than two years left in the Army when she gets back from Iraq, but Kirchbaum said her unit, the 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, already is scheduled to deploy again to Iraq or Afghanistan a year from Christmas, and his wife would be in a combat zone again.

"We don't care about the money at this point," Kirchbaum said, adding that every time his phone rings and he doesn't recognize the number, he fears it's bad news.

"It's a really crappy lifestyle to live," said Kirchbaum, of Waialua. His wife previously deployed to Afghanistan.

Now, Archibald is planning to re-enlist for two years — the shortest time possible — and to get a Mainland base position that will keep her out of a war zone.

'WE'RE STRETCHED THIN'

One of the goals of the Army and Marine buildup is to provide more at-home time between deployments. Some top military officials also are expected to argue for troop drawdowns in Iraq to take some of the pressure off a force strained to the breaking point.

The Navy's Anderson, who is from Soda Springs, Idaho, just got back from six months in Bahrain doing "force protection" dives, salvage operations and anti-mine operations.

"We're stretched thin helping out (explosive ordnance disposal) and SEALs and then trying to man all the ship (maintenance) commands," Anderson said. He added that the ordnance disposal field "is really stressed out right now and they are undermanned."

In the Navy for almost eight years, his re-enlistment will keep him in the service until 2010. He's leaning toward making the Navy his career, but his skills also are in demand in the civilian world, and he estimates a bridge inspection diver can earn $70,000 to $80,000 a year.

Kirchbaum also said his wife's military intelligence skills can transfer pretty easily to the civilian side — even if those skills quite often are used back in Iraq.

"My wife sits next to a guy who does the exact same job that she does — and he gets $10,000 a month because he's a civilian over there," Kirchbaum said.

That's a lot more than most military members make.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, in 2006 regular military compensation ranged from $29,700 for a single enlisted member in the lowest pay grade, to $85,900 for a single person in the highest enlisted grade.

The figures include base pay and cash allowances for food and housing, and don't include additional combat zone benefits.

Sgt. Anthony Brown, 28, who works in human resources at Schofield for Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 3rd Brigade, has been in the Army for nine years and signed up for five more, picking up a $19,000 bonus.

The career Army man, who is married and has seven children, said the bonus has helped out with bills.

"That helped build up my savings to where I wanted to be without having to wait a ways down the line and build it up gradually," said Brown, who is from Grandfield, Okla.

Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute in Virginia, said re-enlistment bonuses will keep pace with the nation's combat involvement and all the pressures that brings to bear on recruitment and retention.

"As long as we're fighting a multi-front war and people are dying in relatively large numbers," Thompson said, "the Army and Marine Corps have no choice but to offer supplementary financial inducements to keep people in and attract new recruits."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.