11 - Benjamins

$35,000.  The Army just announced a bonus for eligible Captains (like me!) if I add another three years onto my already six-year commitment.  I agree with Josh on this one: you can't buy my love.  Besides, I'd feel like A-Rod after the 2000 season when he took the money and bolted for Texas.  Only $251,965,000 not as rich.  Another three years and the Army would own me into 2014.  I can see myself deploying another three times between now and then.  That would be five deployments.  FIVE!  Good lord.  Thanks, but no thanks.  I have a wife who likes me right now and I'd like to keep it that way.

I could see this one coming a while back.  Nearly all my ROTC friends from Gonzaga did their four-year commitments, deployed at least twice during that time, and never looked back as they got out.  So maybe we're not the Greatest Generation.  Sometimes you gotta take care of #1.  As much as my time in the service has meant to me, and for as loud as I sang Lee Greenwood at my wedding, I still can't rationalize my extended presence in this Army.  I'm just too confident they'll ask me to postpone or completely miss some important things, like starting a family or a Mariner's World Series victory.

The Army's going to get their Captains.  Cash is king.  Throwing money at this problem may be quick fix, but it isn't solving the deep down issue of retention.  The solution to that lies at the center of this complex storm our country finds itself in.  You tell me how to solve it and you got my vote.