Readers of Tom Philpott's Military Update column sound off.

Retired Pay Reduced To Recoup Separation Pays

I was hoping you might have some insight on whether recipients of the Voluntary Separation Incentive or the Special Separation Bonus [offered during the post-Cold War drawdown of 1992-95] are still required to pay back the money they received if they later gain retirement eligibility.

I am talking about individuals who are now in the AGR [Active-Guard-Reserve] program and reach retirement eligibility through such service.  I have heard from different individuals that there is a possibility that they will not have to pay back VSI or SSB payments from their retirement.

JULIE DOLLAR
Senior Master Sergeant, USAF
Fort Meade, Md.

 

Not true.  On separation from service, many military members are entitled to some form of post-service compensation, depending on individual circumstance.  Defense pay officials explain that that the post-service compensation is viewed as "full and final payment for that period of service."

Though members who receive such payments can seek and earn retirement pay later, either from active or reserve components, the law prohibits the military from making dual payments for that same period of service.  Title 10 U.S. Code, Sections 1174 and 1175, states that a member who has received separation pays, SSB or VSI, and later qualifies for retired pay, "shall have deducted from retired pay so much of such pay as is based on" the same service.

The retired pay deductions must last until the amount recouped equals to the amount of the earlier-paid separation incentive. 

"The Department of Defense does not view the recoupment as punitive," said Army Lt. Col. Les' Melnyk, a Defense press officer.  "It is based directly on the amount of time a person serves prior to receipt of the separation incentive.  The department sees the avoidance of this dual payment as a cornerstone of the entire compensation system and does not intend to request any changes to the law." -- Tom Philpott

NO TRICARE-FOR-LIFE FEES

I was promised "womb-to-tomb" medical care if I stayed for '19 and 6' back in 1958. That promise was evidently written on a block of ice!

We now have to pay for Medicare in order to get TRICARE for Life benefits. If we move offshore, we have another set of rules to follow.

I don't get a lot for my 26 years of combined Navy and Air Force service.  I receive under $700 a month in [net] retirement and $126 for a 10 percent disability. I'm getting fed up with these retired high-ranking officers with big pensions, or civilians who have never served, advising the government to reach into my pockets to solve problems they created in the first place!

I'm retired on about 25 percent of what they live on, so they should leave me the hell alone! I'm not asking for food stamps or public housing, or anything that I didn't earn. I was born in this country and yet still paid for the right to live here. I pay my fair share of taxes without complaint.

I just want to live the rest of my 15 or so years in peace without any one after my wallet!

ALAN BEHR
USAF-Ret
Seaford, Del.

 

WAITING TO BE SEEN

Trouble getting an appointment in the military health care system? No kidding.  I kept getting told to keep trying because maybe an appointment will open up.

Recently, when my husband couldn't pay the TRICARE bill online, we were dropped from the managed care TRICARE Prime program. On contacting TRICARE, he was told that since this was his first delayed payment they wouldn't make us wait a full year before we could return to Prime.  But we did have to wait until January.

While we waited, I tried to get an appointment for a lump inside my finger that was growing larger every day. I was told I would still have to wait or could call around to other military hospitals in the area. Our servicing base, Andrews Air Force Base, didn't have any appointments.

Getting to Walter Reed or National Naval Medical Center is a major commute, so I took my chances and waited.

REBECCA BEEMAN
Calvert County, Md.

Contact your public officials about this issue.

IRR AND NEW GI BILL

I read that transferability under the Post-9/11 GI Bill is limited to those serving in the military when the program takes effect on Aug. 1 this year.

I'm currently "serving" in the Individual Ready Reserve having lost my Navy Reserve pay billet last May.  I was planning to stick around until Aug. 1 in hopes of qualifying for the transferability option for my daughter.  Since I'll be in the IRR then, will I be eligible for the new GI Bill or am I wasting my time?

John D.
Jacksonville, Fla.

IRR status will not qualify an individual for transferability under the new GI Bill. – T.P.

 

RESERVE RETIREMENT

What a slap in the face!  I'm referring to the change to reserve retirement enacted a year ago.

I deployed to Fallujah, Iraq during the "push."  I was snatched out of my life and away from my family when called.  I answered, as did millions of American warrior soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen.

Yet this change in law essentially screws servicemen out of the new earlier retirement formula by segregating those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan before the reserve retirement bill was enacted from those who have served after.

Thanks, Congress, for having my back.
R. RIVERA
Deployed in Afghanistan

Letters may be edited for clarity or length.  Write to Military Forum, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA  20120-1111, send e-mail to militaryforum@aol.com or visit www.militaryupdate.com.