USCGC Stone monitors a burning vessel that was interdicted by U.S. forces in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Aug. 16, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard)
U.S. Coast Guard members will receive a one-time “Devotion to Duty” bonus at the end of 2025 as thanks for their service, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Thursday.
The $2,000 bonus will recognize the “exceptional service and success of U.S. Coast Guard members in 2025,” according to a Coast Guard statement.
“We want to show our country’s profound appreciation for their devotion to duty and the countless sacrifices they make to protect our nation,” Noem said in a statement Thursday.
The Coast Guard currently has 40,757 active-duty personnel. The bonus will cost the service about $80 million in one-time pay.
The bonus is the first specific plan for the $1,776 “warrior dividend” that President Donald Trump said he wants to go out to more than 1.45 million military and federal law enforcement personnel. The amount of money designated by Trump is meant to symbolically reflect the year of the Declaration of Independence, 1776.
“The checks are already on the way,” Trump said in a televised speech on Wednesday night. “Nobody deserves it more than our military.”
Trump did not say where the money would come from or exactly who would receive it.
The Coast Guard statement on Thursday did not initially specify a dollar amount, but a later statement from the service said the “special duty pay” would be $2,000 “pre-tax.”
The Coast Guard said Thursday that the payments would be processed this month and would go to Coast Guard members in paygrades O-6 and below who are on active duty through Dec. 31.
Coast Guard members with the rank of captain and below would receive the bonus. Rear admirals and above, along with Coast Guard cadets, are not eligible.
Reserve members who have been on active duty for 31 or more consecutive days as of Dec. 31, would receive the bonus. The Coast Guard also said payments would not be paid to “service members not entitled to basic pay.”
Noem said the payments were “acknowledgement of the tremendous dedication, bravery, and innovation demonstrated by service members throughout a landmark year of transformation for the armed service.”
One day after Trump took office in January, he dismissed Adm. Linda L. Fagan as commandant of the Coast Guard. Trump cited what he said was Fagan’s lack of emphasis on border security issues and an “excessive focus” on diversity, equity, and inclusion among the reasons for her dismissal. Fagan was also given three hours to vacate her official residence at Joint Base Anacostia Bolling in Washington, D.C.
Adm. Kevin Lunday, the acting commandant, has overseen a higher-profile role for the Coast Guard in drug and immigration interdiction off the U.S. coasts. Coast Guard law enforcement teams have been assigned to U.S. Navy vessels operating in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans near U.S. boarders, and Coast Guard aircraft are frequently used to transport people detained by immigration authorities from locations in the U.S. to deportation processing centers.
Federal immigration agents escort an “apprehended suspect” onto a U.S. Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules in Lihue, Hawaii, on Feb. 22, 2025. Department of Homeland Security personnel said they had apprehended five Romanian nationals and one Bosnian national who will remain in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody pending immigration proceedings and removal. (Tyler Robertson/U.S. Coast Guard)
“The performance of our members — on the water, in the air, and at our shore units — is the very bedrock of our nation’s maritime security,” Adm. Tom Allan, the acting vice commandant, said in a statement Thursday.
