19 Years 6 Months 20 Days Cumulative Service - NO Sep Pay??

C

Courage9

PEB Forum Regular Member
Registered Member
I'm writing this on behalf of a friend. I've known this person for over 20 years (I'm a retired MSgt). I knew he was medically discharged (Dec 97) and always believed he received what he rated. However, after sitting down and a little scuttlebutt, I found out that this E-7 was Medically Retired TDRL after 19 years, 6 months, and 20 days of cumulative service with 17 years, 1 months and 10 days active service. He received absolutely NOTHING for his service other than a VA Rating of 80%....NO Sep Pay, No Retirement Pay, nothing...other than a nice Retirement Certificate and a move to PDRL 3 years later.

My question???

How can a person serve his country for that many years and get absolutely nothing from the service he served???????:(
 
He should receive retirement. I suggest he contact a lawyer who specializes in this and goes for what he earned. He should have done that 16 years ago. I would assume if he has a good case, this will be very appealing to a lawyer since there could be considerable back pay involved.
 
ranger2992 said:
He should receive retirement. I suggest he contact a lawyer who specializes in this and goes for what he earned. He should have done that 16 years ago. I would assume if he has a good case, this will be very appealing to a lawyer since there could be considerable back pay involved.
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As a lay person, it seems so easy to see the error of injustice, and after reviewing his entire case record, it would be a no brainer, but I'm not a lawyer. I'm hoping that someone knows of a case history about something like this in the courts? Do you believe that a lawyer is his best bet? Or can he file with the BCNR??
 
I actually believe that someone in his old small admin shop failed to file something correctly that would have started retirment pay or something...who knows...
 
Courage9 said:
I'm writing this on behalf of a friend. I've known this person for over 20 years (I'm a retired MSgt). I knew he was medically discharged (Dec 97) and always believed he received what he rated. However, after sitting down and a little scuttlebutt, I found out that this E-7 was Medically Retired TDRL after 19 years, 6 months, and 20 days of cumulative service with 17 years, 1 months and 10 days active service. He received absolutely NOTHING for his service other than a VA Rating of 80%....NO Sep Pay, No Retirement Pay, nothing...other than a nice Retirement Certificate and a move to PDRL 3 years later.

My question???

How can a person serve his country for that many years and get absolutely nothing from the service he served???????:(
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There are only four dispositions a soldier can receive when on the TDRL. The first three are the most common. Permanently retired for physical unfitness. Discharged with severance pay for physical unfitness. Or fit for duty. Soldiers found fit for duty have a STATUTORY right to enlist at their former grade, but that right is only for 3 or 6 months. The fourth disposition is much rarer. The soldier is found unfit but its due to a condition which wasn't stated to be unfitting when the soldier was placed on the TDRL. The only time I've seen that is in cases of PTSD.

So my guess is the soldier was found physically fit and opted not to enlist. In that case he would not be entitled to retired pay or severance pay.
 
BTW, if he has over 20 years of QUALIFYING service (50 or more retirement points a year) he can collect a retirement for nonregular service at age 60. The law says you can collect retired pay for nonregular service if you are not eligible for retired pay under any other provision of law. You friend isn't entitled to retired pay under any other provision of law . . .
 
Per the OP he was placed on PDRL. Sounds like he is a disability retiree and his VA pay is greater than his disability retirement pay. Does he have a blue retiree ID card? Does he get Retirement Account Statements (RAS) from DFAS? Has he ever applied for CRSC?

Mike
 
maparker said:
Per the OP he was placed on PDRL. Sounds like he is a disability retiree and his VA pay is greater than his disability retirement pay. Does he have a blue retiree ID card? Does he get Retirement Account Statements (RAS) from DFAS? Has he ever applied for CRSC?

Mike
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Good point Mike . . .
 
Need more information to advise. There are simply not enough facts to suss out what is going on with this case.
 
Thank you for the insight. And your are correct he was a disabled retiree. I had him go through everything he has kept in reference to this and he found a piece of paper that said he picked VA over MIL because it was probably higher. He can't recall, he was heavily medicated and didn't realize he was out of the Corps for almost 3 years afterward.

From what I'm learning, please let me know if I wrong, he should be getting CRDP eventually?...his disability was not combat related.
 
Your friend is the poster child for why CRDP should be expanded to disability retirees with less than 20 years of service.

CRDP (Concurrent Receipt Of Disability Payments) allows a retiree to collect all of their VA and all of their retirement without offset if their VA rating is 50% or more. Unfortunately, current CRDP law mandates that disability retirees must have 20 years of service to receive CRDP. By law, Length of Service (LOS) retirees do not have to have 20 years to get CRDP. There are tens of thousands of LOS retirees with less than 20 years that can collect CRDP if their VA rating is 50% or more. Most of these less than 20 years of service LOS retirees are TERA retirees but there are other type cases as well.

There have been several attempts to expand CRDP to disability retirees with less than 20 years of service but none have yet to pass into law. There will undoubtedly be another attempt to expand CRDP for disability retirees with less than 20 years as part of the FY 2014 NDAA.

Mike
 
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