Soldiers at Fort Stewart, Georgia, can now trade a multi-year reenlistment commitment for four extra days off timed to the November launch of Grand Theft Auto VI. The 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion, nicknamed the Gila Battalion, is offering the special pass to about 130 eligible troops, and roughly 20 have already signed up.
The offer surfaced publicly after a photo of a July 28 unit memo was posted August 17 by U.S. Army WTF! Moments, a military social media community with more than 1.7 million followers, which jokingly urged Rockstar Games to hand reenlisting troops free copies of the game, according to Dexerto. Defense news outlets later verified the memo's authenticity with Army officials. As reported by NBC 6 South Florida, an Army career counselor developed the idea of tying a retention perk to the game's release, and the pass is meant to remind soldiers of their approaching reenlistment dates.
The Fine Print Behind the Four-Day Pass
The memo, signed by unit commander Lt. Col. Ryan D. Hodgson, designates the pass for November 20 through 23 — days that fall right after Grand Theft Auto VI's scheduled November 19 release. Soldiers who sign reenlistment contracts by November 14 qualify, but the pass still has to be submitted through military channels for company commander approval, cannot be combined with ordinary leave, and is off-limits to soldiers flagged for administrative, physical fitness, or body composition deficiencies, per Dexerto's reporting on the document. To lock in the four days, soldiers must commit to at least two more years in uniform, with contracts running as long as six years depending on the soldier, according to WLTX.
Lt. Col. Angel Tomko, who confirmed the authenticity of the July 28 memo, told NBC 6 South Florida that the program connects to what soldiers are already interested in. The battalion falls under the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team within the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, and its lineage traces back to 1917, including World War II service at the Ludendorff Bridge, according to Wikipedia's entry on the unit. Beyond combat engineers, the battalion also includes signal, intelligence, and medical personnel.
A Division Already Leading the Army in Retention
The incentive lands inside a parent division with a strong track record. The 3rd Infantry Division, which oversees roughly 15,000 soldiers based in southeast Georgia, ranked first among all Army divisions for retention in fiscal year 2025, with career counselors hitting their retention goals 90 days ahead of schedule, per Complex. Under Army Regulation 600-8-10, local commanders have broad discretion to grant special passes like this one, even though large-scale cash retention bonuses remain governed at the Department of the Army level, according to Military Times.
This is not the military's first flirtation with gaming as a recruiting and retention tool. The Army has leaned on gaming culture since it launched its official Esports team in September 2018 under the Marketing and Engagement Brigade at Fort Knox, an effort that drew more than 6,500 active-duty applicants at the time, per PC Gamer.
Why Grand Theft Auto VI Has This Kind of Pull
The anticipation surrounding Grand Theft Auto VI helps explain why a four-day pass built around a video game launch is landing with soldiers. The title returns to the fictional Vice City, a satirical stand-in for Miami, and expands into Florida-based locales including gator-infested swamps, with gameplay that involves carjackings, police shootouts, and heists, according to NBC 6 South Florida's reporting. Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar's parent company, is publishing the game, which is scheduled for release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, per Rockstar Games's own announcement.
The wait has been long by franchise standards. Grand Theft Auto VI arrives more than 13 years after Grand Theft Auto V, which launched in September 2013 and generated over $1 billion in retail sales within three days, a benchmark that still makes it one of the highest-grossing entertainment products ever released, Complex notes. Take-Two chief executive Strauss Zelnick has called preorders for the new game unprecedented and astonishing, according to NBC 6 South Florida. The game's first cinematic trailer dropped in 2023, and Rockstar had planned to debut extended gameplay footage in a trailer on Netflix this week before hackers leaked apparent footage online, preempting that rollout.
An Unlikely Character Parallel
There is one more coincidence tying the game to military culture: Rockstar's official character bios describe Grand Theft Auto VI male co-protagonist Jason Duval, who appears alongside lead character Lucia Caminos, as a U.S. Army veteran turned drug runner in the Leonida Keys, according to Military Times. It is a detail that has not gone unnoticed among soldiers watching the retention pass unfold at Fort Stewart, even as officials frame the program as a routine, voluntary incentive ahead of fiscal year 2027 retention goals.
