Army offers recruits up to $50K bonus as pandemic takes toll

Too bad I'm too old to enlist again, that's some serious money that can be used for college MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.

Nice share MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D...! Bonuses are a supply & demand issue in my opinion. A bonus number that's driven on if the Army is meeting it's yearly quota to maintain a force level at agreed upon numbers. The most expensive part of the Army is it's troops, unlike the Air Force & Navy with many multiple billion dollar weapons programs.

If they want to cut funding to the Army, pretty much the only way to do it in substantial amounts is to cut troop levels (I'm surprised this hasn't been suggested by bean counters recently). With the Army it seems to be feast or famine:

In lean/peace times: "we don't need as large of a standing Army- let's cut the troop levels stat!"
In troubled/war times: "Wait..! "Hey we need more troops, time to expand the force- get more Soldiers, cause we have to fight XYZ country or terrorist group... need a bigger Army Now...!"

In the famous words of Donald Rumsfeld (who wasn't always right, but he was 100% correct here): "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want or wish you had..."
https://youtu.be/3jPgljRvzQw

Paying bonuses to buy talent is a new concept in the military.

In the corporate world, IT giants are known to offer bonuses and pay hikes to even promotions to attract talent from the competition to fill certain vacancies with specific expertise. This exercise is referred to as poaching.

Based on this discussion, it is not surprising at all for veterans collecting disability compensation to be still serving on AD and Reserves or even the NG. Filling billets is critical apparently.