normally they turn on your pay for the following month. Then in the next 3-6 months they process your backpay for the several months of backpay that you are owed. That's how it went for my wife. She got approved and started getting paid but it took 4 months for her to get her 3 months of CRSC backpay. The backpay is processed by a special group in DFAS since they have to calculate everything. The larger the check and the more the backpay the longer it takes.
Thanks for the run down! Yeah I'm sure it's coming I just won't hold my breath waiting on the backpay haha. Fortunately they did the back pay to my retirement in May 2004.
Initial payment, if approved o/a the first half of the month *usually* hits the 1st of the month, if it's the latter half, then the 2nd 1st of the month, i.e., 15-45 days has been a pretty accurate DFAS average with that. Retro pay, can sometimes hit before the monthly payment; however, the average there has been 45-60 days out. Since they dated yours to May 2004, you should get back to 2008 when NDAA 2008 authorized CRSC for Ch 61 with less than 20 years AFS. If you were a 20-year AFS retiree, then, yes, it'll be back to 2004.
CRSC has approved it, DFAS will pay, and you're just in the final processing stage.