Calling it a “teeny bit of news,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth announced a new monetary benefit for soldiers who go on operational deployments of 60 days or more.

The new benefit, called Operational Deployment Pay, is $240 a month and is effective immediately retroactive to Oct. 1, Wormuth said during a meeting with reporters at the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2024 Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C.

Soldiers, she said, “will receive $240 a month during the time of that deployment, and that is both to recognize the hardship of being away from families but also the rigors of deployment.”

Wormuth thanked Congress for “working with us to provide the appropriations to fund that.”

The extra deployment pay is rank immaterial, and there currently is no end date, Wormuth said. “I don't know a lot of new benefits that end, so I think our view is, this will be something that we will offer to our soldiers for the foreseeable future,” Wormuth said.

Soldiers entitled to hostile fire pay and imminent danger pay also can receive Operational Deployment Pay, which is an assignment and special duty pay, according to Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ruth Castro. However, a soldier is not authorized sea pay concurrent with Operational Deployment Pay, she said.

Hostile fire pay and imminent danger pay are hazard pay programs that are paid for separate purposes, Castro said, adding that hazard pays are provided to soldiers based on their exposure to hostile fire, or the threat of physical harm or imminent danger.

“If you get jump pay, and everybody's doing jump pay, it’s the same for everybody,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George explained. “That's how we all sat down and talked about this.”

— Gina Cavallaro