New Navy Reserve bonuses and the Osprey closes a chapter | Headlines

The U.S. Navy Reserve is offering enlisted sailors, officers, and civilians sizable financial incentives to remain or join the service, the Navy announced Wednesday

Beginning June 1, 2026, individuals may qualify for several different bonus enlistment packages from the Navy Reserve as part of the Recruiting and Retention Incentive Program

For the next generation of sailors, the programs include the new accession training enlistment bonus, reserve component affiliation bonus, prior service re-enlistment bonus, and selective retention bonus

Under the program, enlisted sailors can make up to $20,000 in bonuses, depending on the initiative they qualify for

Officers, on the other hand, are eligible to sign up for their own incentives

Eligible officers may receive affiliation bonuses of up to $10,000, direct commission accession bonuses of $12,000

and retention bonuses of up to $12,000 annually for three years in designated communities, the service said

The Navy hopes that the potential financial windfall will prove particularly effective

at convincing active duty service members and prior service members to join the Reserve

The move comes amid a continued push by the Navy to recruit and re-enlist qualified candidates by reaching further into its pockets

The service announced financial incentives for select Navy reservist aviators in June that reached as high as $40,000 in annual bonuses

The Normandy D-Day beaches where Allied forces landed on June 6, 1944

to fight Adolf Hitler's Nazi troops have become a UNESCO-protected World Heritage Site

the United Nations body said recently. In a statement on its website UNESCO said the beaches formed a quote exceptional cultural landscape shaped both by the events of 1944 and by their enduring remembrance which justified new protections for the heritage site

The Normandy D-Day beaches are regularly the focus of commemorations, featuring world leaders from the United States

Britain, Canada, and France. Soldiers who took part in the Normandy landings

came from the United States, Britain, Canada, Belgium, Norway, Poland, and a range of other countries

The assault marked a decisive stage in the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany in World War II

In total, 156,000, 115 Allied troops either landed by sea onto beaches codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juneau, and Sword

or were airdropped behind German coastal defenses. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently awarded 50 U.S. service members with the Mexican Border Defense Medal at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C

The award is an updated version of the Mexican Border Service Medal, originally designated in 1918, and now revived to reflect the military mission at the U.S. southern border

When you build out national defense areas and when you put infantrymen and others down there on the border, securing that fence line, doing named operations, operating at night, operating with drones, counter drones, tunnels, you name it

I read all the operational reports of the types of efforts you've undertaken. You have been dynamic

You have been creative. You have been aggressive. You have used the authorities you've been given

you work with your law enforcement partners huge shout out to to border patrol and homeland security

i know you work with them every single day their authorities complement yours your authorities

complement ours because we all americans securing our border and stopping that invasion and that why for over a year there been effectively zero illegals crossing our border Effectively zero especially on the

national defense areas. Well, this Southwest Border Medal, the Mexican Border Defense Medal

was established in 1918 to stop other incursions and invasions, and so we're not creating something

new. We actually revived the exact same medal from 1918 to be given to all of you today as a

reflection that this service is an extension, we stand on the shoulders of other great Americans

who defended this nation. And it always requires the real 1% to do difficult things at difficult

places without enough recognition. And the reason we're bringing you all here is because every

single soldier, Marine, and one sailor seated here represents thousands, thousands of others

who have done this mission on our southwest border and are doing it right now

The medal was awarded to 50 service members, including 14 Marines, one sailor, and 35 soldiers at a ceremony in the nation's capital July 27th

To today's awardees, you were asked to deploy into a complex and demanding environment

and you did so without hesitation. You were tasked with executing a mission that requires seamless integration

technical proficiency, and unwavering dedication in the heat, severe heat. Whether you conducted wide area surveillance in the dead of night

made heavy equipment in triple-digit heat, as I just said, or coordinated the complex logistics that keep this mission going

you all performed exceptionally well. You demonstrated the Marine Corps' ability to support any mission in any climb in any place

with the same steadfast professionalism that has defined our legacy for more than 250 years

The medal you about to receive is a recognition of your operational excellence It is a testament to your efforts as individuals and to your contributions to the success of the team because no one fights alone On behalf of the entire United States Marine Corps

congratulations. I could not be more proud of you for the way that you've accomplished the mission

that you were assigned. A staple of the skies during the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

the Marine Corps' MV-22B Osprey began its final chapter in service recently with the delivery of

the last model. With the acceptance of the 359th and final tilt rotor aircraft, the Marine Corps

marked the end of the MV-22B Osprey program of record, a milestone that will now shift efforts

toward sustaining and modernizing the fleet. Though the Navy and Air Force also use variants

of the Osprey, the Marine Corps maintains the majority of the aircraft. The Corps intends to

keep the Osprey operational through 2055 with efforts that include improving wiring, working

towards updated gearboxes, standardizing the fleet, and redesigning parts of the aircraft for better

safety. The aircraft has a history of safety issues and accidents that have led to the deaths

of over 60 service members since 2000, according to prior Military Times reporting. And in 2023

the Defense Department grounded the aircraft after eight service members were killed when an Air

Force Osprey crashed. A 2025 government watchdog report found that the services had not appropriately

shared information about Osprey issues among each other. The Osprey was developed to reduce the gap

between rotary wing and fixed wing aircraft. Since going operational in 2007, the platform has been

involved in 114 deployments and flown more than 683,300 hours, according to the program's office

which also said the Osprey represents three-quarters of all Marine Corps Rotary Wing support