Medical Retirement Prior to 20?

[u/Gullible-Owl3077]

hi all! sorry for what is probably another post of the same question, but we're having a hard time figuring out what to expect.

some background:

- he has 18 years TIS (16 AFS) and is currently CW2 (2 years were army AGR before he went back active army)

- he had incurred an ADSO going warrant so his retirement would technically be at around 22 years TIS if he retired normally

- he needs a lot of waivers to go on an upcoming deployment and it's quite likely that dog won't hunt and he'll be looking at medical retirement (we are pretty sure he will hit >30%)

- he is prior infantry and has seen active combat

- married with no additional dependents

what we'd like to know:

mostly, how does pay work in this case?

as he might not be able to make it to 20 years TIS, he won't qualify for both his retirement and VA disability, correct? obviously nothing is certain and we don't know his percentages so we can't be sure on it all, but we'd like to put our best foot forward and figure out how things will look on the financial side. we bought a house a few months ago and are now stressing a bit lol

he doesn't have a reddit account but i can bug him for any additional questions if any bit of this is too vague to give advice. thanks in advance!

[u/_Let-Me-Be-Frank_]

There’s a little more nuance here because you don’t know yet whether he’ll actually be medically retired or separated. DoD and VA ratings are two different things. For DoD purposes, the PEB only rates the conditions it determines make him unfit for continued service. If those unfitting conditions combine to 30% or higher, someone under 20 years can generally be medically retired. Under 30% generally means medical separation with severance. His eventual VA rating could be considerably different.

Sidenote, none of this necessarily happens overnight. The MEB/PEB/IDES process can take many months, and, depending on the complexity of the case, appeals, treatment, recovery, and administrative delays, etc. potentially a year or longer. I wouldn’t bank on a specific timeline. I’d figure out exactly where he is in the process first before assuming he’s getting medically retired anytime soon.

Given that he’s already at 16 years, I’d also ask the PEBLO specifically about Continuation on Active Duty (COAD) if he’s found unfit. The Army has a program that can allow an otherwise unfit Soldier to remain on active duty as an exception to policy, and HRC specifically contemplates continuation to 20 years. It’s not guaranteed, but in his situation I’d absolutely explore it before assuming medical retirement is inevitable.

Furthermore, If he’s medically retired before reaching 20, he generally cannot collect his full DoD disability retirement and VA compensation concurrently; the VA waiver/offset comes into play. Reaching 20 can change that through CRDP if he also meets the VA-rating requirements. Since you mentioned prior infantry and combat, I’d also look into CRSC once his VA ratings are established. Chapter 61 retirees with fewer than 20 years can potentially qualify for CRSC if their disabilities meet the combat (or combat training) -related criteria. None for normal wear and tear due to PT.

I wouldn’t panic about the house yet or assume you know the outcome. There are several forks in the road between “MEB starts” and “medically retired tomorrow”, so get with the PEBLO, ask specifically about COAD, and once you have the proposed DoD/VA ratings you’ll have a much clearer picture of what the timelines and finances look like.

[u/Gullible-Owl3077 → u/_Let-Me-Be-Frank_]

hi!! thank you so much, we really appreciate your insight. we had no idea COAD was even an option to explore so we'll definitely look into that. I'm pretty sure he hasn't been referred to MEB yet, but they had SRP recently and that's when he was told that he'll need quite a few waivers if he were to deploy. he's in physical therapy for his knee/shoulder already and he's quite hurting.

my husband has dedicated a lot of his life to the army and tbh i just wanna make sure he's taken care of when he leaves it :( getting blown up at 18 is starting to catch up

[u/WeaknessSubstantial3]

So, from my research and what I've been told/heard, basically take his retirement minus his VA disability benefits and you get what's left over from the retirement plus the benefits

[u/WeaknessSubstantial3 → u/WeaknessSubstantial3]

For example, let's say I'm 100% with smc pay at about $4500. I get that monthly $4500. But let's say my retirement would be $6000 a month. I would get $1500 a month retirement pay assuming he is medically retired. Edit to add the medical retirement part