Cash bonuses of up to $150,000 are being offered to certain senior NCOs of the Regular Army who extend their careers in select specialties of the special operations and military intelligence career management fields.

The Nov. 25 update to the Critical Skills Retention Bonus program applies to sergeants first class, master sergeants and sergeants major who are at, or near, retirement eligibility.

The targeted military occupational specialties are language dependent Special Forces specialties of career management field 18, MOS 38B (Civil Affairs) and Arabic linguists in MOS 35P (Crypto Linguist).

The new incentives take effect Dec. 8, and will remain available until at least Jan. 15.

Lump-sum payments under the revised CSRB program range from $18,000 to $150,000 for soldiers who are in the designated specialties and skill sets, and who extend their careers for 24 months to 72 months.

The CSRB complements the Tiered Selective Retention Bonus program which is targeted at more junior soldiers who are not serving indefinite re-enlistments.

Soldiers may be paid a critical skills bonus within 180 days of reaching the qualifying service start date. Bonuses generally are tax-free if paid in a combat zone. However, soldiers may not receive more than $200,000 in total payments from CSRB and the selective Retention Bonus programs during a career.

Here are some rules governing the CSRB program that takes effect Dec. 8:

• Soldiers must meet the qualifications for re-enlistment described in Army Regulation 601-280 (Army Retention Program) without regard to their retention control point.

• Under law, soldiers with more than 25 years of service cannot receive CSRB payments. Therefore, bonus and service extension applications that would result in a soldier exceeding 25 years of service will be returned without action by the Army.

Soldiers who are interested in this program should contact their servicing career counselor to submit a CSRB application.

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