Options to get good 20 years

Provis

Provis

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Hi,

So I have been on this board a lot and have really enjoyed researching and helping others. I have 2 questions that my wife hasn't been able to get an answer about yet despite asking around. #1 does a partial year count as 1 good year? My wife who is a CPT and about to be a Major has been in 18+ years with 14 of them being active duty. She is having health issues and may not be able to stretch this thing out long enough to have 20 FULL calendar anniversary years. If she get discharged with 19.5 years does that count as 20? I have attached DoD Instruction 1215.07 but its not clear what happens to a leftover partial year? Since she is AGR she gets 1 point per day so she could get her 50 points after only 2 months into her 20th year. Just not sure if that last partial year will count as a good year and get her to 20 good years. She wants her 20 year letter so that at age 60 she an be eligible for CRPD.

#2 If my wife is found unfit by the PEB can she submit a COAR packet instead of a COAD packet? Since AGR are both active duty and reserve at the same time I wasn't sure if she could choose or if she had to do COAD. I think her chances of having a COAR approved are much higher than COAD since it would only extend her by about 6 months.

Thanks!
 

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19.5 years doesn’t count as 20. You’ll want to ask these questions from guard and reserve veterans.

she will best benefit from getting her 20 year letter and then collecting CRDP at age 60. She can get a CH 61 retirement now, if she has the appropriate LODs.
 
Provis said:
Since she is AGR she gets 1 point per day so she could get her 50 points after only 2 months into her 20th year. Just not sure if that last partial year will count as a good year and get her to 20 good years. She wants her 20 year letter so that at age 60 she an be eligible for CRPD.
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Being your spouse is ARG she doesn’t fall under the partial (50 points to make a good year rule). That regulation pertains to Gaurdsmen. AGR are given points the same as active duty, they are paid every day, no matter wether it’s a Monday or Saturday until they ETS, quit or retire.

She would earn however many points she worked that year and subsequently would not reach 20 years. Example 19 yrs, 2 mo, 4 days.
 
50 retirement points per year to qualify for credit towards a 20 year retirement.

3.1. CRITERIA FOR ESTABLISHING THE SERVICE REQUIREMENT FOR A SATISFACTORY YEAR OF SERVICE FOR NON-REGULAR RETIREMENT.
a. Qualifying Years of Satisfactory Service. Pursuant to Chapter 1223 of Title 10, U.S.C., a qualifying year of creditable service toward a non-regular retirement is a full-year, as described in Paragraphs 3.1.b. and 3.1.c., during which a member of an Active Component (AC) or Reserve Component (RC) is credited with at least 50 retirement points. Accumulating 20 such years, except as otherwise provided by law, is one requirement necessary to qualify for non- regular retired pay.


Most reservist are now drilling 48 to 55 assemblies with a 3 week annual training, plus 15 points for Guard membership.

This is why the DoD keeps raising the amount of authorized retirement points.

DoDI 1215.07, July 30, 2019

(a) Sixty retirement points for any 1 anniversary year closing before September 23, 1996.

(d) One hundred and thirty retirement points for anniversary years closing on or after October 30, 2007.
 

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I think what you’re asking is if someone Guard/Reserve can get a combination of traditional and full time years. The short answer is yes.

my wife for example has 7 years AGR and 5 traditional for a total of 12 combined. As I understand it, she can keep on the AGR path and retire full time in 13 years, (or when she gets to 7200 points). or she can just do 8 more years of either AGR or traditional and get a 20 year letter and retirement at age 60.

what I believe but am not 100% sure of is that if she were CH61 retired she would get the retirement immediately but to collect CRDP at age 60, she would need to have her 20 year letter.

if your wife has 18 years combined, tough it out, delay everything, appeal at every level.
 
We are thinking we need to stall but her health is deteriorating fast so may not be an option:( Her command will work with her but its getting pretty bad. I have to drive her to work and back and she is running out of options for medicine that will work. Her Neurologist says its time to request Botox injections for her migraines. Hoping that brings relief. The issue is that she has 2 unfitting conditions and they both affect each other making it worse. She has chronic migraines & chronic sinusitis with nasal polyps. She has had 2 surgeries in the last 4 years to remove the polyps. The sinus issues can exacerbate the migraines and vice versa. We do have memorandums for record stating all the things she can't do for both conditions + Doctor letters. Want to make sure each condition is properly rated and found unfitting. I think her best hope his to tough it out until end of August. That would put her at 19 good years. Then should be able to stretch out 1 year. Especially since she has 78 days of leave saved up. She is able to save over 60 due to the pandemic. Would appreciate everyone's thoughts. That looks like the only strategy to get her to 20 good years before being medically retired.
 
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You can easily stretch a MEB out for a year. There are at least 6 levels of appeal, appeal at all 6.

IMR
MEB rebuttal
PEB
IPEB/FPEB
VARR
Disability agency appeal.

also at each of these levels you’ll get 10 days to sign documents that will take you to the next stage.... taking all ten days gets you 60
Days.

there are more methods of making it take a year but these are the basics.
 
I never used it, but could she use the FMLA (family medical leave act?)
 
SFC H said:
I never used it, but could she use the FMLA (family medical leave act?)
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Won't help towards her retirement & doesn't apply to this situation. FMLA is a joke anyway. If it was me that needed to take time off to help her it wouldn't apply since my employer doesn't have 50+ employees.
 
Provis said:
Hi,

So I have been on this board a lot and have really enjoyed researching and helping others. I have 2 questions that my wife hasn't been able to get an answer about yet despite asking around. #1 does a partial year count as 1 good year? My wife who is a CPT and about to be a Major has been in 18+ years with 14 of them being active duty. She is having health issues and may not be able to stretch this thing out long enough to have 20 FULL calendar anniversary years. If she get discharged with 19.5 years does that count as 20? I have attached DoD Instruction 1215.07 but its not clear what happens to a leftover partial year? Since she is AGR she gets 1 point per day so she could get her 50 points after only 2 months into her 20th year. Just not sure if that last partial year will count as a good year and get her to 20 good years. She wants her 20 year letter so that at age 60 she an be eligible for CRPD.

#2 If my wife is found unfit by the PEB can she submit a COAR packet instead of a COAD packet? Since AGR are both active duty and reserve at the same time I wasn't sure if she could choose or if she had to do COAD. I think her chances of having a COAR approved are much higher than COAD since it would only extend her by about 6 months.

Thanks!
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There is a lot to this situation. Hitting 20 years would be great, but the bigger concern would be making sure she has a LOD that shows her injury or disease happened on active duty OR is at a minimum covered by the 8-Year rule discussed in 36-2910. She sounds like she meets the qualification, but NGB can be a jerk about it. Her LOD has to say "8 YEAR RULE APPLIES FOR MEB" in the signature block from NGB.

As far as requesting COAD or COAR, it is primarily used to get to 20 years of Title 10 service and most likely won't get approved for just 20 years IF she is going to be MED retired because they will pull her to active duty for retirement purposes if she has an unfitting disability of 30% or greater.
 
Guardguy11 said:
There is a lot to this situation. Hitting 20 years would be great, but the bigger concern would be making sure she has a LOD that shows her injury or disease happened on active duty OR is at a minimum covered by the 8-Year rule discussed in 36-2910. She sounds like she meets the qualification, but NGB can be a jerk about it. Her LOD has to say "8 YEAR RULE APPLIES FOR MEB" in the signature block from NGB.

As far as requesting COAD or COAR, it is primarily used to get to 20 years of Title 10 service and most likely won't get approved for just 20 years IF she is going to be MED retired because they will pull her to active duty for retirement purposes if she has an unfitting disability of 30% or greater.
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She is AGR so I believe each year she does AGR it counts towards the 8 year rule. She has been AGR for over 8 years now. AGR is weird. She is full time active duty but also drills one weekend a month.
 
@Guardguy11

Thank you for providing clarity to this esoteric conundrum .


Ron
 
Provis said:
She is AGR so I believe each year she does AGR it counts towards the 8 year rule. She has been AGR for over 8 years now. AGR is weird. She is full time active duty but also drills one weekend a month.
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AGR is a weird animal on paper, but in reality, it is no different than when active duty works a weekend duty coverage. Paid the same for extra work.

The 8 year rule only requires that you have a minimum of 8 years of title 10 service prior to the unfitting condition being established. The beauty of the 8 year rule is that even if (a most likely when) NGB sends her LOD back as NILOD (not in the line of duty) she can still proceed with her MEB just like it was ILOD.

When you are going through the MEB process as a guardsman, the whole 20 year thing really doesn't matter than much anymore unless you unfitting condition is less than 30%. If you provide some more details we can go through the different likely scenarios.
 
Yeah the only reason she wants to hit 20 years is CRPD at 60. Pretty sure she will hit 30% DOD or higher. She has 2 unfitting conditions that both should be rated at 50% each. Though knowing everything is subjective we are planning on her getting 30% rating for each one. Migraines is hard to get 50% rating & Chronic Sinusitis is the same way. Through August 2020 she has 5543 creditable points so if she can delay starting fit for duty until this August and stretch it out for 1 year she should have about 6273 points and 20 full good years to get her 20 year letter. So even if she was rated 30 DOD she would end up getting 43% since her longevity is higher than her disability rating. We aren't sure if she can make it but it would be silly not to try. If she started the fit for duty now and was out in a year she would have just over 19 years in the reserves.
 
Just know that points mean absolutely nothing if she is MEB'd while on title 10 orders. She will be pulled to active duty for retirement so she can frame her PCARS printout if she wants lol. 20 year CDRP is a great goal, but considering she will be getting an active duty pension from day 1, I think you all will end up on the better end financially having the active duty retirement immediately.
 
Guardguy11 said:
Just know that points mean absolutely nothing if she is MEB'd while on title 10 orders. She will be pulled to active duty for retirement so she can frame her PCARS printout if she wants lol. 20 year CDRP is a great goal, but considering she will be getting an active duty pension from day 1, I think you all will end up on the better end financially having the active duty retirement immediately.
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She is already on active duty through the AGR program.
 
Provis said:
She is already on active duty through the AGR program.
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Even though she is on AGR orders, you are not entitled to an active duty retirement until you get 20 years of title 10 service unless you go through a medical retirement.
 
Guardguy11 said:
Even though she is on AGR orders, you are not entitled to an active duty retirement until you get 20 years of title 10 service unless you go through a medical retirement.
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I am fully aware. Only way she gets active retirement before 20 is if she is medically retired with a rating of 30% or more. Just looking at getting 20 year letter for CRPD. If she gets less than 30% for medical retirement she can decline severance and receive her Reserve retirement at age 60 and get CRPD too if she has 20 year letter and rated 50% or higher by VA:)
 
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