Coast Guard Offers Unprecedented $100,000 Bonus to Rescue Swimmers Amid Recruitment Crisis

Published on December 30, 2023

The Coast Guard is offering an unprecedented $100,000 bonus to retain its elite rescue swimmers as recruiting and retention challenges continue to plague the branch. For fiscal year 2024, one of the largest bonuses is being offered to specialized rescue swimmers, called aviation survival technicians (AST), in pay grades E-4 through E-7 with 17 to 21 years in service. They are eligible for a $100,000 Critical Skills Retention bonus for an obligation of four years of service. “In my near 25-year career in the Coast Guard, there has never been a bonus of any kind that I know of for the aviation survival technicians,” former chief petty officer David Kroll told The Epoch Times, having spent 22 years of a nearly 25-year career as a rescue swimmer. The Epoch Times confirmed that there was no bonus offered to rescue swimmers at the same pay grade in fiscal years 2023 and 2022....

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