Come and go as your please

[IgD]

Anyone else seen this?

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=46219&source=rss

I would much rather have matching TSP contributions and have the ability to come and go. For example it would be nice if I could take several years off and then possibly serve again.

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Members don't see this ad.

 

[megadon]

If you note, it's all about enlisted, which we are not.

 

[orbitsurgMD]

Anyone else seen this?

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=46219&source=rss

I would much rather have matching TSP contributions and have the ability to come and go. For example it would be nice if I could take several years off and then possibly serve again.

It is about improving enlistment rates and IRR rosters while reducing the amount paid for retirement benefits and family member support benefits. The sailor on civilian leave of absence draws no retirement credit, delays the date of retirement if he does return, reduces his lifetime retirement benefit when he does retire, and while away does not have a spouse or children for which the Navy would otherwise have to provide housing, schools, and health care. When he does return, the kids are older, perhaps even too old to be eligible for benefits.

This is all about reducing the expenditure on enlisted family support and enlisted retirement payout, which when you compare the costs of this to what enlisted get paid, is a significant percentage of the total compensation package. The target is the younger enlisted population, those who consume lots of services: medical, school and special social service programs that are costly but necessary for young, low-income military families living far from their network of family and home community. Delaying a retirement from age 38 to age 48 will save a lot of money, get you a group of older enlisted who are still young enough not to have too many health problems, yet who aren't distracted by the needs of young families and who won't be unfamiliar with the service if they return. (And I suspect this will have a double-edged quality to it; the services might be able to use this as an easy reduction-in-force tool to involuntarily release active-duty enlisted from their contracts just as they are now able to do with reservists. There will surely still be a mandatory IRR provision, which will make involuntary callup easy too.)

 

[runningmom]

I'm not sure this is really something new - more like codifying what already exists. At least with the officer corps. I know more than a handful of officers who got out, many who went to work for various airlines and after 9/11 were furlowed. They came back after being on IRR status for a few years, promoting non-competively along with their active peers. They didn't even lose flight pay when they returned to their staff positions.

Edit: I just read Megadon's reply - nevermind... This isn't about the officer ranks....