Need Help, Reserves/Guard Medical Retirement/Separate

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BigHugh

PEB Forum Regular Member
Registered Member
Hello all,

Currently Active Duty 12-year E-6 planning for possible future options/outcomes to secure retirement.

Is it possible to join the reserves or guard after being medically retired in AD?

When transitioning from AD to reserves/guard, if you are pursuing a high amount of VA disability claims does that affect your ability to be "healthy" enough for the reserves or guard?

Has anyone been turned away from reserves or guard?

Thank you all for any information, it is truly appreciated!
 
BigHugh said:
Hello all,

Currently Active Duty 12-year E-6 planning for possible future options/outcomes to secure retirement.

Is it possible to join the reserves or guard after being medically retired in AD?

When transitioning from AD to reserves/guard, if you are pursuing a high amount of VA disability claims does that affect your ability to be "healthy" enough for the reserves or guard?

Has anyone been turned away from reserves or guard?

Thank you all for any information, it is truly appreciated!
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You can go from AD to Reserves/Guard directly normally. If medically retired or separated that wouldn't be possible due to the separation code that will be placed on your outgoing AD DD214.

If you are unfit for AD then you would still be unfit for Guard/Reserves. Also, if medically retired why would you want to go back in anyway? You get tricare for life for you and your family if medically retired and a pension for life too!
 
Provis said:
You can go from AD to Reserves/Guard directly normally. If medically retired or separated that wouldn't be possible due to the separation code that will be placed on your outgoing AD DD214.

If you are unfit for AD then you would still be unfit for Guard/Reserves. Also, if medically retired why would you want to go back in anyway? You get tricare for life for you and your family if medically retired and a pension for life too!
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"If you are unfit for AD then you would still be unfit for Guard/Reserves."
This makes perfect sense and what I was expecting would be the case but wasn't 100%.

"Also, if medically retired why would you want to go back in anyway? You get tricare for life for you and your family if medically retired and a pension for life too!"
My current understanding is, if you have less than 20 years served (I'm at 12 years) you can only collect ONE of DOD medical retirement or VA Disability (whichever is higher). That's why I'm currently considering trying to tough it out 2 more years (my current DOS) to transition to Reserves or Guard to finish my 20 years for the double dip pension. I have done a large amount of VA disability research and the math behind it, and I believe I have the diagnosis to be awarded 100%. That being said I could also definitely use some information on the medically retired tricare for life (I have a family as well) vs the 100% VA disability rating I believe I would receive. Please let me know if I got any of the retirement stuff incorrect as this is life changing stuff. Thank you very much for the help btw.
 
I replied to your other post about this, but wanted to just add that Tricare Reserve Select is a great health insurance option and mirrors Tricare select in that you don’t need referrals. It’s a little bit more expensive than prime for retirees, but just wanted to add as food for thought. I know ALOT of COMPO 2 and 3 folks who actively drill and pull 100% VA but stay reserve to keep the health insurance.
 
BigHugh said:
"If you are unfit for AD then you would still be unfit for Guard/Reserves."
This makes perfect sense and what I was expecting would be the case but wasn't 100%.

"Also, if medically retired why would you want to go back in anyway? You get tricare for life for you and your family if medically retired and a pension for life too!"
My current understanding is, if you have less than 20 years served (I'm at 12 years) you can only collect ONE of DOD medical retirement or VA Disability (whichever is higher). That's why I'm currently considering trying to tough it out 2 more years (my current DOS) to transition to Reserves or Guard to finish my 20 years for the double dip pension. I have done a large amount of VA disability research and the math behind it, and I believe I have the diagnosis to be awarded 100%. That being said I could also definitely use some information on the medically retired tricare for life (I have a family as well) vs the 100% VA disability rating I believe I would receive. Please let me know if I got any of the retirement stuff incorrect as this is life changing stuff. Thank you very much for the help btw.
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The one or the other thing isn't quite right. You get all of your medical retirement. If you accept VA compensation then you agree to offset against your retirement. So if your chapter 61 medical retirement pension was $1,000 and your VA compensation is $500 then you would end up getting $500 from pension after offset and then $500 from VA compensation. You can claw back the offset by getting approved for CRSC which can get you a seperate CRSC payment and the total allowed is the combination of your earned longevity + VA compensation. For example, my wife was medically retired with 17 years AD time. She got 75% DOD and that amount is less than if she had gotten her earned longevity at 42.5% + her VA compensation. She doesn't qualify for CRDP to get both due to not hitting 20 years. However, she applied and was rated 80% for CRSC. The % is paid at the same rates as the VA tables. She didn't get $2,300 per month because of the ceiling of not getting more than the total between her earned logevity retirement and her VA compensation compensation. In her case she got about $1,500 from CRSC. So when you total up her chapter 61 pension after offset + VA compensation + CRSC payment she is receiving the same amount as someone that qualified for CRDP getting all of their pension and VA compensation.
 
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Unless I missed it from the experts above, there is one more question to ask... Would you make more money medically retiring now and getting immediate access to the pension less VA pay and possible CRSC or finish your 20 non-regular years to not touch your pension till 60~ w/ CRDP while just getting VA till 60~?
 
DaveK said:
Unless I missed it from the experts above, there is one more question to ask... Would you make more money medically retiring now and getting immediate access to the pension less VA pay and possible CRSC or finish your 20 non-regular years to not touch your pension till 60~ w/ CRDP while just getting VA till 60~?
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Kinda a mute point since his plan was to try to go into the guard or reserves after being medically retired from AD. But let's assume question was from a guard/reservist that we get this variation of this question all the time. If its between immediate medical retirement or trying to eke it out to hit 20 good years ALWAYS choose medical retirement. The reason for this is medical retirement from having LOD means immediate pension and tricare so if you are 45 years old you get paid the next month verse waiting 15 years to get a non regular retirement through the guard/reserves. Even if you could guarantee that VA compensation was higher than medical retirement meaning the entire amount would be offset the insurance alone would be worth it. Also, every chapter 61 retiree has the possibility of getting CRSC to claw back the offset to equal non regular retirement + VA compensation AND you get that day 1 verse waiting to be eligible at age 60 or slightly less if reduced by qualified deployments. Since CRSC isn't guaranteed the only time to try to eke it out and hit a regular retirement or non regular retirement would be if you can stretch out AD to 20 years or if guard reservist and you are only a couple years from reaching retirement age such as someone that joined reserves later in life and hittin 20 years put them close to age 60. The nice thing about CRSC is that there are a lot of presumptive conditions meaning if you have deployed to certain countries and are diagnosed by the VA with eligible condition you will get it awarded. Some examples are having been deployed to Iraq and have asthma, sinusitis, rhinitis etc.
 
Agreed. I was hoping to push him into discovering that once he starts running the numbers. It's what I learned from all of you here... especially you. Thanks.
 
"If you are unfit for AD then you would still be unfit for Guard/Reserves."
This makes perfect sense and what I was expecting would be the case but wasn't 100%.
 
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