Key Takeaways
- The 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion at Fort Stewart is offering a special four-day pass timed to the November 19 release of Grand Theft Auto VI to any of roughly 130 eligible soldiers who reenlist for two to six years between August 1 and November 14, with 20 already signed up.
- Unit leaders say the incentive, dreamed up by a new career counselor to tap into what younger troops actually care about, is meant to boost early engagement on fiscal 2027 retention goals and builds on a division already ranked No. 1 in the Army for keeping soldiers in uniform.
- The move underscores how the Army is increasingly leaning on gaming culture — after years of esports outreach and convention appearances — as GTA VI arrives more than a decade after GTA V, one of the best-selling and fastest-grossing video games ever.
An army battalion in Georgia has found an unconventional way to get soldiers to re-up: offer them four days off to play Grand Theft Auto VI.
According to CBS News, the 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion at Fort Stewart is authorizing a special four-day pass, timed to the November 19 release of Grand Theft Auto VI, for any soldier who signs a reenlistment contract between August 1 and November 14.
The pass dates will be coordinated between each soldier and their chain of command to align with the game's launch window, per Task & Purpose. Of the roughly 130 soldiers eligible, 20 have already reenlisted. To qualify, troops must commit to a minimum two-year contract, up to six years.
The program traces back to a new career counselor in the unit who pitched the idea as something that would resonate with younger soldiers and help kick-start the battalion's fiscal year 2027 retention goals, which begins in October.
Lt. Col. Ryan Hodgson, the battalion commander, signed the authorizing memo on July 28. It gained wider attention after being posted by U.S. Army WTF! Moments, an online community of service members and veterans, before being authenticated by Task & Purpose and Military.com.
"The idea was to have a unique incentives program that connects to what Soldiers are interested in," an Army spokesman said. "The command team, in conjunction with the career counselor, wanted to get soldiers excited to reenlist."
The battalion, part of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, includes troops in engineering, signal intelligence, human resources, and medical roles. The broader division is a formation of some 15,000 soldiers.
The 3rd Infantry Division ranked as the Army's top division for retention last year, with career counselors finishing their brigade mission 90 days ahead of schedule. Other local incentives commanders have deployed include duty exemptions, parking privileges, and performance-linked bonus sizing.
"We want to retain the best talent and it's a credit to the creativity of the career counselor within the organization to develop this unique opportunity surrounding the launch of this popular video game," Lt. Col. Angel Tomko, a spokesperson for the 3rd Infantry Division, told The Hill.
GTA VI arrives on PlayStation 5 and Xbox on November 19, more than a decade after GTA V launched in 2013. That earlier title sold more than 230 million copies worldwide and reached $1 billion in sales just three days after release, according to ABC News.
The new installment features the franchise's first female lead and is set in Leonida, a fictionalized Florida that includes Vice City, a stand-in for Miami.
