Permanent Retirement @ 19 yrs 9 months

tharin4prez

PEB Forum Regular Member
Good afternoon all!

I'm sure if I took more time than the past 20 minutes to look, I may have found my answer somewhere on here ... but as it is my head is swimming w/ thoughts of I now need to grow up and find job.

Anyway ... just got my results back this afternoon after a wait of 8 weeks. 60% disability -- 50% for apnea and 20% for low back problems.

This is what I find disturbing ... I have had back problems since I originally hurt it in 1990. 2 surgeries, 2 pins, 6 screws and a severe case of Osteomyelitis caused during the 2nd surgery that almost took my life and left my spine curved differantly than when I went in the hospital ... which also caused me to have even more pain throughout the day than I had before the surgery. ... I get handed 20% ??! To top that off, I now limp because I'm curved funny. So because I have a hard time sleeping at night I get 50%? Where's the rationale?

Either way ... what I simply wanted to ask was this ...
My local PEBLO person doesn't seem to be able to break my questions down in lamens terms. Being forced out at 19 yrs 9 mon. will that hurt me in the long run? I know there's a long math formula that tells me what I should get after I final out ... having said that though don't I lose a rather large chunk by NOT completing 20 FULL years? I may have been able to go over the 20 year mark had I not been forced (or will be forced) to sell back 60 days of leave. My outprocessing days coupled w/ leave would have taken me over the 20 year mark if allowed to start today.
 
Not making it to twenty will likely costs you thosands of dollars a month in compensation. If you make it to twenty, you will be eligible for CRDP. That means if your VA rating is 50% or more, you get to keep all of your retirement and all of your VA compensation. If you have less than twenty years, every dollar of VA compensation will offset a dollar of retirement.

This is a huge deal. Make sure you get to twenty. Research CRDP (Concurrent Receipt of Disability Payments) and get smart on that program.

Mike
 
I thought that after 18 years the Secretary of the Service has to authorize discharge. I know that the below is for Army Reserve and National Guard, I would have thought that the Active Services would have something similar.

1–11. Authority to order separation of Soldiers having more than 18 but fewer than 20 years of qualifying service for retired pay

a. A Soldier having completed 18 but fewer than 20 years of qualifying service for retired pay (Title 10, Section 12732, United States Code (10 USC 12732)) will not be involuntarily separated without the approval of the Secretary of the Army or his designated representative. All recommendations for involuntary separation of Soldiers in this category will be sent to HQDA (para 1-12) for consideration.

b. Cases involving voluntary separation at the request of the Soldier need not be referred to HQDA for approval.
 
That is the so-called Sanctuary provision for reservist. On the active side, there is no similar provision (but if you look at the regulations for admin separations, the Service Secretaries generally have to approve separations for senior members).

Note that all military disability cases are approved by the Service Secretaries designee, so that addresses the "logic" of allowing separations at any time.
 
tharin4prez

It is a sad deal that they are trying to out you out so close to your retirement, as others said try your best to stay to LOS retirement. I too have sleep apnea and my other problem is a bad ankle. I was told the apnea is not unfitting so I was offered 20% and a boot in the ass. What branch of service are you in and what type of work do you do?
 
You may another appeal left...you can appeal the findings of the board and will report to San Antonio for this. After that you can appeal again, this appeal goes to the SecAF (for AF) and their decision is final. But, each appeal leg takes 6-8 weeks.
Also, did you graduate from a service academy? I'm trying to confirm...I'm at 18.4 and am being told my 4 yrs there will not impact my retired pay but will give me the 20+ yrs of service needed to get CDRP.
Anyone please correct any errors in my statements.
 
tharin4prez

What branch of service are you in and what type of work do you do?

USAF and Aerial Port (Air Transportation). A rather heavy job physically.
To be outed shy of 20 doesn't really bother me that much (ok, I'm lying), but what really chaps my chummies is the base "supposed experts" that are supposed to answer any/all questions w/ out error especially when it pertains to ones career are dumber that a big box of hammers!
Example ... I go to MPF / Retirements to ask a few questions on my kick in the a$s out the door, and I get asked back if I've first gone to vMPF online and read about it. I then ask -- If I don't actually know what I'm looking for, how will I know when I find it? She then tells me that I'm first supposed to go to vMPF and read the handouts ... so I do and they answer none of my questions. It's sort of like when you don't know how to spell Psychiatrist and try and look it up in the dictionary and start looking in the S section. Unless you have an idea of where to start, you're starting blind

So this is what I tell her ... this area is your area of expertise. You retire personnel out of the military daily/weekly or whatever. This is MY first time RETIREING, I'm the novice, so "please" answer my questions as best as you can.

She rolled her eyes ... I wanted to smack her

Anyway ... I just got off the phone w/ Lackland and am now setting up a formal review. Should do one of two things ... take me over the extra time I need to crawl across the 20 year mark and maybe up the percentage on the back thing.

Either way ... I should start looking for a job I can where slip on shoes. After these last several years of tuffing it out, my wife has had to help me w/ my boots on a daily basis and I KNOW she's about had it helping me w/ those things!
 
tharin4prez

The VA is making a huge grab for hiring new veterans, especially veterans with disabilities. There are amazing benefits being able to work a federal job coming from the military. There are some good sites in the Transition section on this site to check out.
 
It should bother you a whole bunch. I get about $1650 more a month because I have twenty.

Mike
 
It should bother you a whole bunch. I get about $1650 more a month because I have twenty.

Mike

It does ... and I worked it out today to allow the system to work for me to gain the extra couple months I need to go over the top
 
Well my stress meter just went back down to zero. After meeting w/ DAV council for my FPEB, I decided to stick w/ the initial 60% rating I was offered from the IPEB.

So now I guess I go back to home station and await AFPC to send my MPF any final documents and wait for a retirement date. From what I understand here at Lackland, that process could be approx 2 more weeks. Fine w/ me, although I have only been here at Lackland for 3 days, I'm about done w/ this base.

One thing I have learned here is that there is A LOT of information that the PEBLO either won't or can't tell us about before getting here ... I'm actually leaning toward the "won't" tell us. So my advice to EVERYONE is to contact their local DAV person and get their help filing through the VA. The 2 gentlemen I've been speaking with here were tops in my book!

So now it looks like I'll be able to go over the top to get my 20 ... 2 additional weeks wait time for my documents, 20 days base time to outprocess, 20 days PTDY (CC already gave a verbal nod on), 37 days of leave they can't make me sell back (fingers crossed) after the take their 60 days ... takes me where I need to be.

www.dav.org

I also had a chance to flip through a book called "What every veteran should know" while I was here. Just happened to be in the billeting day room. Now I need to go out and buy a copy of my own since I didn't take enough notes from it.

** Looks like I have another day to look at the book ... just called the airline and Friday morning is the earliest I can get out of here. :( :mad:
 
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