My husband has spent more than 17 years serving in the United States Navy's Seabee community. Throughout his career, I've watched sailors in other Navy communities receive substantial reenlistment and retention bonuses while many career Seabees have received little or none.

For years, I accepted that this was simply how Navy bonuses worked. Then I started looking at the Navy's own manpower numbers and began asking why. Seabees provide skilled construction, equipment maintenance, engineering, utilities, and expeditionary support that the Navy depends on around the world. Yet some parts of the Seabee community are currently undermanned. For example, the Navy's 2026 manpower data shows Construction Mechanic E-7 manning at approximately 84%, with sea-duty E-7 manning around 71%.

These numbers raise an important question: If the Navy is already experiencing shortages among experienced Seabee leaders, why aren't retention incentives being used more broadly to help keep that experience in the force?

Retention incentives aren't simply rewards. They are tools the Navy already uses to retain sailors with skills and experience it needs. If experienced Seabees are needed to fill critical positions, we should be asking whether current retention policies are doing enough to keep them.

What We Are Asking For
We ask the Department of the Navy and Congress to:

-Conduct a comprehensive review of retention incentives across the Naval Construction Force, including manning levels, retention rates, critical skills, paygrades, NECs, and sea-duty shortages.
-Expand targeted retention bonuses and incentives for undermanned Seabee ratings, paygrades, and critical skill sets when the Navy's own manpower data demonstrates a retention or manning need.
-Create stronger career-retention incentives for experienced Seabees whose technical knowledge, qualifications, leadership, and expeditionary experience can take years to replace.
-Consider a one-time Career Seabee Service Recognition Incentive for qualifying long-serving Seabees who completed multiple reenlistments during periods when their communities received little or no significant retention incentive.
-Report whether current Seabee incentive policies adequately address the Naval Construction Force's present and future manpower needs.

This is not about taking bonuses away from sailors in other Navy communities. Those sailors earned the incentives offered to them. It's about asking that the same attention given to retaining other critical Navy skills also be given to the people who build, repair, maintain, and support the infrastructure and equipment our Navy relies upon.

Seabees have spent generations living by their motto: We Build. We Fight.

It's time to make sure the Navy is doing enough to retain the people who make that mission possible.

Please sign and share this petition to support a formal review and fair consideration of retention incentives for America's Seabees.

Sources
U.S. Navy / MyNavyHR — Construction Mechanic Community Health and Manning Data, 2026

U.S. Navy / MyNavyHR — Selective Reenlistment Bonus, Special Duty Assignment Pay, and Enlisted Bonus Programs

37 U.S.C. §331 — General Bonus Authority for Enlisted Members

37 U.S.C. §355 — Retention Incentives for Members with Critical Military Skills

 
This petition is independently organized by a Navy spouse. It does not represent or speak on behalf of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, any military command, or any individual service member.