“At the end of the day, the soldiers ended up paying the largest
price,” said Maj. Gen. Matthew Beevers, deputy commander of the California
Guard. “We’d be more than happy to absolve these people of their debts. We just can’t do it. We’d be breaking the law.”
Facing enlistment shortfalls and two major wars with no end in sight, the Pentagon began offering the most generous incentives in its history to retain soldiers in the mid-2000s.