Base pay is increased five percent for each three years of service. Thus, the master sergeant with 20 years service will get $214.50 monthly. He formerly received $179.40.

30-day furlough annually
      Every soldier also is entitled to a 30-day vacation each year with full pay, plus a furlough ration allowance which averages about 70 cents a day. Passes for brief absences from his post are not applied against this annual furlough time.

Higher retirement benefits
      Under the Armed Forces Voluntary Recruitment Act, a soldier can retire on half pay after 20 years' service. Or, as formerly, he can serve 30 years and retire on three-quarters pay.

      This means that an untrained young man, enlisting at the age of 17, can leave the Army after 20 years of service — at the age of 37 —and if he has attained the noncommissioned officer grade of master sergeant, he will receive a monthly check of $107.25 for life, 20 percent more than under the former retirement pay schedule. After 30 years—at the age of 47—this master sergeant can retire at three-quarters pay, $185.63 a month, also an increase of 20 percent over the old figure.

Here's how the new monthly retirement rates work after 20 or 30 years' service:

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