Conference repair::reserve_forces

    "Points" in the US military apply towards retirement.  It's another way
    of expressing the 20 (or more) years of service required and determines
    the percentage of base pay which a retiree will receive as a monthly
    annuity.  More points = more pay once the minimum is achieved.
    
    Generally speaking, one point is accumulated for each day of military
    duty.  Reserve duty, expressed as Unit Training Assemblies (UTAs), gets
    you one point for each four hour drill period.  During Annual Training
    (AT) one point is for each day since that is considered active duty
    time.  A reservist can also accumulate points towards retirement
    through attendance of military education courses or taking
    correspondence courses.  A minimum number of points must be accumulated
    during a 12 month period for it to be considered a "good year" counted
    towards retirement.
    
    That's the general gist of it.  Clear as mud, right?
    
    Len

    I take it then some people can retire with thousands of points.
    
    It appears a good way of hanging on to the more experienced personnel
    but how do most people feel about it? 
    
    Is it possible to earn a retirement salary equal to or greater than
    the regular pay?
    
    

    Re .2:
    
    Not that I know of. It used to be that people retiring after 20
    years of active duty would receive 50% of their base pay as retired
    pay. However, a couple of years ago that was dropped to 35% because
    they wanted people to stay longer (also to save money).
    
    The reserves are a whole different ball game. It's more of a "earn
    as you go" type of system. If you only spend 4 months on active
    duty when you first come in and then put in the minimum required
    amount of time before you retire after 20 years, you will get a
    minimum amount of retired pay. The reserve system tends to reward
    those who have spent some time on active duty and who put some of
    their free time into the program.
    
    Typically, reserve retirement works out to be 15-25% of base pay.
    Not as much as the regulars but then we don't have to put up with
    the bullsh*t they do (or risk our necks as often).
    
    Mark
    RMC USNR 

    Basically, if you are active duty, you get one retirement point
    per day. 365 for a regular year, 366 for leap year. That's 365 x
    20 = 7300, 7305 with leap years.

    For the Reserves, they will only credit 50 IADT points/yr. Then
    you get 15 pts for being a member plus any ADT time. If you
    attend all your drills and you do minimum ATs (12 days), you
    will have 77 points/yr minimum. You can't increase your IADT
    points beyond 65/yr. The only way to increase your points is
    through ADT time. If you were a straight reservist and never
    did any additional ADT time (highly unlikely over 20yrs), you
    would have 120 points from your initial training, plus 32 drills
    and 15 membership points, for a first year total of 167. 19
    more years of minimum participation, 19 x 77 =1463. A grand
    total of 1630 pts.

    1630/7300 = 22% You could expect to recieve 22% of what a 20yr
    retiree from Active Duty would receive!
    

    Re .4:
    
    Good illustration. Maybe I'm dating myself (you know two things
    happen when you get old.....the second thing is you lose your memory
    - I can't remember what the first thing was) but somewhere I remember
    that the maximum number of "warm body" points + drill points could
    not exceed 60. Did they increase that number to 65?
    
    Also, if I'm not mistaken, aren't you a travelling man? I think
    I saw your name in a conference with some other travelling men.
    
    Mark
    RMC USNR

    Re .4:
    
    Bob, in your closing comment you state that a 20 year "retiree" (ha,
    ha, ha) with straight reserve time would receive 22% of the amount that
    an active duty member would receive.  Don't you mean that the reservist
    would receive 22% of the base pay of his highest grade held?  I haven't
    played with these numbers for a long time so my recollection may be way
    off.
    
    Len
    

    re .5
    I might have gotten carried away with the calculations. Now that
    I think on it, I remember saying to myself that 48 + 15 =63 and
    that means that you throw away three points/yr by attending every
    drill. I always wondered why it wasn't 12pts for membership. Of
    course, at this stage of the game I'm in there one night every
    week and sometimes get extra reserve pay for attending the various
    little conferences and selection boards. I 'throw away' as many
    points as they credit me with. I always try to get them to put
    me on orders, but budgets being budgets...
    
    Re .6
    Len, I meant 22% of what an active retiree of the same grade and
    situation would get. I had a former CO that had to retire his
    commission because he didn't complete his advanced course within the
    required time. He served out his last 5yrs as a sergeant (one of the
    squad leaders in my platoon for the last three) and he did retire as
    an O3.
    
    One note, other than the higher percentage of base pay, the active
    retiree collects his pension as soon as he retires. The reserve
    retiree must live until age 62 in order to collect. All of us that
    are making a career out of the reserves, should be members of the
    various associations, so that we can lobby to get these things
    changed. If I retired tomorrow, the only thing that I would have
    to prove that I was a member of the retired reserve and qualified
    for a pension, is the 20yr letter. No ID card, no benefits and
    then when I turned 62, I have to APPLY for the pension. Ridiculous!
    
    Bob Mc

There are many details in the participation points capture game. 
This is how I recall them. If I have something wrong, someone out there 
please correct me.


Dick Aiken
VP-92
USNR-R

Drill Points:

gratuitous (affiliation)         = 15
regular drills (100% attendance) = 48 *
                              -------
total possible                   = 63
maximum allowed                  = 60
minimun required                 = 50

maximum additional drills        = xx +


* Each "unexcused" absence from drill will decrement the 48 so that even if 
  48 regular drills are recorded, if there are say 2 unexcused drills in the 
  fiscal year, only 46 of the regular drills will be allowed. In this case, 
  the reservist may recieve an earnings statement at the end of the fiscal 
  year indicating -2 drills with a corresponding pay deduction. Excess regular 
  drills must be documented as "additional". This happened to me last 
  month. The admin department had to send a drill record amendment for me to 
  recoup pay for 1 drill which had been incorrectly recorded as "regular" 
  vice "additional".

* Missed drills may be "made up" or "rescheduled" within regulatory 
  constraints (which may vary between services and commands) limiting the 
  number of make ups allowed or restricting the use of reshceds to the needs 
  of the command.

* If drill plus gratuitous points for a fiscal period < 50, the year is 
  "unsat" retirement regardles of how many points from other categories 
  have been attained. Points from an unsat year are still captured and added 
  to the reservist's total for determining retirement pay. The retirement date 
  just gets pushed out another year. 

+ Additional drills are allowed for pay up to a maximum per quarter or 
  per year determined by billet but do not count for "drill" points
  (e.g. USNR-R aircrewmen are allowed up to 12 additionals per quarter or 
  48 additionals per year).

Active Duty Points:

One per day whether Annual or Special.
Limited only by Command needs and budget constraints.


Other Points:

accrued through completion of courses, attainment of awards, etc.


Total Point:

P(total) = P(drills) + P(gratuitous) +P(active duty) +P(other)

    Use the following formula to figure your reserve retirement pay:
    
    
    		Number of points X 0.025 X Base Pay
    		----------------------------------- = Retired Pay
    			360
    
    Forcast retirement data: Length of service, total points, rank, then
    plug in the numbers to get retirement at "today's" base pay.  Your
    actual pay will depend on the base pay of your retirement rank in the
    year of your retirement.
    
    
    				ETC, USCGR

    Re .9:
    
    Just to follow-up on the Chief's comments.......don't forget that
    you can't collect until age 60 and that you have to apply at age
    59.5 in order to receive said retirement pay and the other goodies
    associated with it.
    
    And whatever else you do, NEVER, EVER "retire" at any time unless
    you have your Notice of Eligibility in hand. Some people have "retired"
    at 20 from the Reserves with the mistaken impression they were all
    set and only had to wait for age 60 to collect their pay. Some of the 
    lucky ones found out differently before it was too late and went back
    into drill status in order to get the NOE. You can imagine the surprise
    the unlucky ones had at age 60.
    
    Mark who_used_to_be_a_Career_Counselor
    RMC USNR