Hello all,
First, thanks for all the great information you all help provide us very much appreciated.
I was expecting to begin the MEB/IDES process at 19.5 years, however, it got initiated now at 19 years and 3 months. I just want to confirm my current understanding based on research here. The process at Bragg is taking around 5 to 6 months without any rebuttals. Rebuttals and formal peb could push the process 3 to 4 additional months, plus the 90 days of terminal and pcs leave. Is this accurate? Thanks.
I am in your exact situation. Active duty Army here and MEB was initiated at 19yrs, 3mo. I just entered the PEB stage and will now have no issue reaching 20 years due to my use/lose/ptdy once I make it to the transition phase.
You must delay, delay, delay. Don't let anyone convince you that you shouldn't care about reaching your length of service at 20 years. CRDP is a big deal regardless of your DOD %, especially as the years pass.
Outside of delaying everywhere you can during the outlined process (e.g. NARSUM IMR/Rebuttal, VARR, FPEB, etc.), I also recommend you drag out your C&P exams. I took this approach and had great success.
Once one of the contracting companies receives your file (VES in my case), they'll reach out to you for an initial call regarding your availability, how far you're willing to travel, verifying your address, phone number, etc. I told them I wasn't available on the weekends and that due to specific life situations, I wasn't willing to travel more than 1 hour unless I absolutely had to. I am in a pretty rural area, so this worked to my advantage.
While in the exam phase, it's you and the contracting company alone. Your MSC and/or PEBLO are essentially in the dark here. Use this to your advantage. VES briefed me that I was authorized one re-schedule per type of C&P exam I was scheduled for. 2+ re-schedules per exam would have to be elevated higher and I would be in danger of having 1) my Co CDR get involved and/or 2) my claim being dropped, at least temporarily. This wasn't a route I wanted to take. I ended up needing 5 C&P exams to complete my claim (Eyes, Ears, Psych, Neuro/TBI/Migraine, and Gen Med). During the process, I was also scheduled for a 6th exam for diagnostic testing (x-rays, MRI, etc.).
Once you see your C&P exam appointments get scheduled, you need to have a strategy on which ones you're going to re-schedule. It might not make sense to re-schedule ALL of them depending on how they fall, but you'll need to determine that. Also, since you're at Bragg, I'm assuming there's plenty of medical resources where they can get you re-scheduled pretty quickly. For me, that wasn't the case. My Gen Med re-schedule gained me 45 days, which helped me out a TON.
For me, my plan was to call right at 72-96 hours out to tell VES that I needed to re-schedule. Each time I did it (twice), I was never asked why. They were very accommodating and repeated the fact that there was no issue as I was authorized one re-schedule per exam. They would initiate the request, and then I would monitor the VES online portal/wait for the physical mail notice to arrive to see when my re-scheduled appointments were.
To summarize all of this, every day counts if you're wanting to reach 20 with your timeline. I would print the MEB timeline PPT sheet and strategize on where you can "slowdown" time. Most of this process is outside of our control, however, the few areas where we do have some control, you must maximize the opportunity. My scorched earth plan was to request an FPEB at the end regardless of what my case looked like, but now I don't need to do that unless of course, I go that route because I don't agree with many things in my case (I will determine that later).
I hope this helps. Good luck with your timeline, I hope you can reach 20.
