I have 7100 AD points, 399 IDT points and 23 years service. I am currently dealing with a medical issue and I’m worried about MEB/PEB process since I’m not at 7300 AD points. If I apply for retirement does that stop an MEB if it gets started? I have AI’d and saw that if medically retired chapter 61 that they use all points and I would receive my retirement immediately regardless of a DOD rating. Am I wrong about combining all credible service for chapter 61?
AGR medical question
- Thread starter HokieJohn
- Start date
So there has been a huge debate on if you can get there by points but we have seen it go both ways. How many AFS? Are you close enough to be able to apply for your regular active duty retirement? That would be the safest way to go! I would keep my head down and apply for retirement assuming you are close enough to apply since you can do so up to a year out.
If they claim you didn't earn a regular retirement then any VA pay would offset your chapter 61 pay. You could end up losing thousands of dollars each month for life. My wife was AGR with 6,000+ points and about 17 total AFS. She did okay being medically retired but only because she got the results she wanted. She did end up paying an attorney about 10k to represent her from the beginning to the end of IDES because she had so much to lose.
I wouldn't risk it and try to hold out and reach regular retirement. If not, I would try to delay until you reach 20 AFS and not count on points. There seems to be a discrepancy in how things are done for AGR or Guard/Reserve with a lot of points. The regs say points don't count unless when medically retired but have seen people get screwed out of a lot of money trying to argue. You don't want to spend years of fighting and pain to get what owed to you because you relied on a unique situation where HR doesn't understand and they don't process things correctly.
I have 23 years, just looking at other information it would seem pretty fast to get a MEB and PEB completed in about 200 days with appeals, but you never know. I’m just on a profile now waiting on scans to be done, but not feeling good about outlook. Do they factor in terminal and permissive before retirement orders cut, or do they give you a day and you have to figure it out, in theory I could be on terminal in July, but that’s getting curtailed and retirement application complete.