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

I'm a service-connected disabled veteran with a VA disability rating of 100 percent.  I was in the Army for 12 years, seven months, when they put me out for retinitis pigmentosa which caused blindness of both eyes.

The House had passed its defense authorization bill (HR 2647) with a provision that would make me eligible, in the first year of a phase-in plan, for concurrent receipt of both my disability compensation and a retirement annuity for years of service.

Would you please find out the status of this provision?

G. D.

Via e-mail

A House-Senate conference committee tasked to iron out any differences between separate versions of the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill decided in early October to drop the House concurrent receipt provision from the final bill.  Senate conferees said the House plan to pay for this provision would have violated Senate budget rules.  So the bottom line is that Congress has failed this year to pass any part of President Obama’s plan to phase in concurrent receipt for “Chapter 61” retirees forced by disabilities to leave service before completing 20 years. – Tom Philpott

I am a 100-percent disabled veteran due to line-of-duty injury after three years, three months of service.  The injury did not occur in wartime.

My retired military pay may be called “reduced” or "offset" but those terms, to me, make light of robbing injured servicemen.  The official paperwork I had to sign called it a retired pay “waiver.”

I receive none of my awarded retired pay because the VA disability is a few hundred dollars more than my retired pay would be after just a few years in service.

It is grotesquely unfair and unjust to have awarded concurrent receipt to senior personnel first.  Those disabled senior personnel are being rewarded concurrent receipt, or disability compensation plus retirement for time in service, ahead of those injured before they could complete 20 years.

I have been "waiving" my military retired pay for 20 years.  Try "waiving" your earned retirement pay and see how fair it feels.

Nothing but pure laziness and lack of compassion could explain the inability of the Senate to forge a plan where concurrent receipt complied with the “pay-as-you-go” rules.

My senator, Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), in response to my e-mails, was uninterested in the issue saying she wasn't on the committee responsible.  No further offer was made to help push the issue on my behalf.

With senior personnel already receiving concurrent receipt, there is no one left to look out for injured and suffering subordinates.

Thanks for using “waiver” in future articles instead of “offset” or “reduced” retirement as it is the more accurate terminology.

TOMMY HILL

First Lieutenant, USA-Ret.

I was 17 years in service, most of it in the National Guard. They retired me back in February 2006 after I spent my last two service years in Iraq and on medical hold.

I have TBI, or traumatic brain injury. An IED went off next to me and I have a quarter size piece of metal in my brain.  I suffer a lot from that, conditions ranging from memory loss to a speech impediment. I am trying to make ends meet.

I get disability compensation from Social Security and the VA.  I was denied VA Special Monthly Compensation.  My wife has to work a part time because she cannot leave me that long by myself.

I was excited when I heard about CRSC (Combat-Related Special Compensation) because Chapter 61 retirees like me would get 100 percent of our retirement pay.  But then they came back with the offset.

Now the president is trying to include Chapter 61 retirees in the CRDP (Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay) program.  He wants us to get our full retirement.  But then I read somewhere that they want even these payments to be an offset. That is not fair for those who have served and could not complete their 20 years because of injuries.

 I am asking these people who make the law and the regulations to step in our shoes and see it is not easy when you have to supply for your family and you almost make enough. I wish they wouldn’t offset it so we what we deserve after our sacrifices for our nation.

JOHN Q. ADAMS

Via e-mail

Reserve Component SBP

I have been working on securing my late husband's naval pension.  He had served on active duty from 1967 to 1969 and continued his reserve career for 22 years. He retired as a Navy captain.

He died in 2002 at age 56 of pancreatic cancer, four years before his reserve retirement could begin.

I have been told by a civilian at the Naval Reserve Personnel Center in New Orleans that I am not entitled to any of his retirement because he did not live to age 60. I find this difficult to believe but have been unable to contact any uniformed personnel who could give me further information.

Could you help?

BARBARA G.

Via e-mail

The only way for a surviving spouse to be eligible for an annuity based on reserve retired pay is if the reservist elects spouse coverage under the Reserve Component Survivor Benefit Plan (RCSBP).

Reserve component members who complete 20 years of satisfactory service can apply for retired pay at age 60.  If they die before age 60, entitlement to retired pay terminates.  But RCSBP can extend annuity coverage to beneficiaries.  Enrollment in RCSBP at maximum coverage level has been automatic since Jan. 1, 2001.  It occurs when a reservist receives a 20-year satisfactory letter.

However, a reservist can decline coverage, or elect to buy reduced coverage, if the spouse concurs in writing and the spouse’s signature is notarized.

If automatic coverage occurs and the reserve component member dies before age 60, the surviving spouse would be entitled to an immediate annuity.

Two other coverage options are available, however.  A reservist can decline coverage until retirement age 60.  In that case, if the reservist dies before 60, the survivor is not eligible for an annuity.

 Finally, a third option covers the designated beneficiary immediately but if the member dies before age 60, the surviving spouse’s annuity does not begin until the date the member would have reached age 60.

Cost of coverage varies by the base amount of coverage elected by the reservist, by the option selected, by the reservists’ age, and the age of beneficiaries at the time the RCSBP election.

Questions about RCSBP eligibility should be directed to your service pay center.  For the Navy that would be: Navy Personnel Command, Pers-912, 5720 Integrity Dr., Millington, TN 38055.  The phone number is 866-827-5672.  The online link is: www.npc.navy.mil/careerinfo/reservepersonnelmanagement

The Defense Finance and Accounting Services also publishes an SBP guidebook online at: