RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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More than a hundred Army soldiers in Georgia this year are being offered a four-day pass to play the eagerly awaited video game “Grand Theft Auto VI” on one condition: they re-enlist. That’s the deal available to 130 members of the 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart, ahead of the game’s mid-November release, a 3rd Infantry Division spokesperson, Lt. Col. Angel Tomko, confirmed to NBC News. So far, 20 soldiers have accepted the proposal, which requires them to re-enlist for two to six years, Tomko said in a statement. An Army memo says: “Any soldier who signs a reenlistment contract between 1 August 2026 and 14 November 2026 will be authorized for a special 4-day pass. This special pass is specifically designated to coincide with the highly anticipated release of the video game Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6).” The military news site Task & Purpose first reported details of the re-enlistment incentive. The goal, Tomko said, “was to have a unique incentives program that connects to what Soldiers are interested in,” adding that the battalion’s command team “wanted to get Soldiers excited to reenlist.” The offer is part of a multiyear Army effort to create “out of the box” ways to promote recruitment and retention. Video gaming has previously been at the center of that, including in years when the Army has failed to hit recruitment targets. Some of the hurdles facing military recruiting are rooted in societal trends. For example, the number of births in the U.S. dropped significantly after the Great Recession in 2008, lowering the number of young adults as potential recruits. Meanwhile, an increase in the number of overweight Americans, as well as those who have taken certain disqualifying medications, like antidepressants, has also limited the recruiting pool. In 2018, after it failed to meet its recruitment goal for the first time since 2005, the Army launched an esports team made up of active-duty and reserve members who travel to esports competitions in a bid to make soldiers more relatable and accessible to young people. In February, USA Today reported that soldiers were competing with video-game-like equipment for the chance to become drone operators. “Grand Theft Auto VI” is one of the most anticipated video game releases of the year. Rockstar Games hasn’t released a new game in the franchise since 2013, although it did offer a compilation of three remastered “Grand Theft Auto” games in 2021.
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