Navy offers senior special warfare sailors up to $100,000 bonuses

The Navy is offering bonuses of up to $100,000 to keep some of its most experienced sailors in some of its toughest, most secretive jobs. The six-figure bonus is being offered to chief warrant officers in the service’s SEAL units and special boat teams with between four and 16 years of commissioned service, according to a recent Navy Administrative Message, or NAVADMIN.

The bonus program is available to a fairly small slice of sailors within Naval Special Warfare who hold 7151 and 7171 designators, which are warrant officer billets for SEALs and combat craft crewmen. Across the Navy, less than 1% of sailors hold warrant officer ranks, according to Department of Defense data. Similar to warrant officers in other services, Navy warrant officers are experienced sailors who work as senior technical experts in their chosen field, rather than follow a traditional enlisted career path into ever-wider management roles.

The first career field is for SEALs who hold chief warrant officer rank, whom the Navy describes as “established and proven leaders.” Their tasks include directing, planning, and managing “high-risk training events” and other exercises, as well as “full spectrum special operations in every environment and every theater,” according to the Navy.

The second designator is for special warfare combat crewmen chief warrant officers. Special warfare sailors in that career field operate the fast and heavily armed attack boats that ferry SEALs on missions, conduct reconnaissance and patrol waterways. Along with the inherent dangers of the job, combat crewmen with long Navy careers have spoken out in recent years on long-term brain injuries they say are associated with the job’s relentless physical demands.

The size of the bonus depends on the length of contract a sailor signs, ranging from three to five years. The lowest bonus offered is $12,500 per year for a 3-year agreement, and the highest is $20,000 per year for a 5-year contract, the NAVADMIN says. 

Special operators will receive their bonuses in a lump sum payment at the start of their new contracts, the message says. No information was immediately available on how many special warfare sailors are eligible for the bonus program.

Earlier this year, the Navy offered a separate bonus for sailors selected for chief warrant officer to join the SEAL and combat crewmen career fields.

Getting chief warrant officers to fill these roles is a “priority for the Navy,” according to a service-wide message from June, which added that the financial incentives being offered were  “part of the Navy’s overarching effort to size, shape, and stabilize the [Naval Special Warfare] force.”

Both SEALs and boat team sailors go through imfamously grueling selection courses. For SEALs, that means completing the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training process that includes a “Hell Week” of training during which candidates get about four hours of sleep during five-and-a-half days of intensive, non-stop physical and mental challenges. SWCC candidates face a similarly harsh, 72-hour nonstop crucible in their early training, known as “The Tour.”

Special warfare combat crewmen must complete selection, basic crewman training, and crewman qualification training to join the career field.