My experience so far with Post-9/11 & HSCP

This is my first post, so go easy on me. I just thought I'd share my experience so far. I've read a few of the threads here regarding the different military scholarships available (HPSP, HSCP) as well as the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

I don't really have any questions for the community, but I'm willing to answer what I can.

Here's my story, in a nutshell:
-Prior-service USN Intel Officer, 5 years active duty. OCS in Pensacola, Intel School in VA Beach, one tour in Japan, one in the DC area. Resigned my commission (as an O-3) after all of my IRR time was complete. Essentially a civilian the summer of 2009.
-Used 9 months of Montgomery GI Bill to help me pay for University of PA Post-Bac Pre-Med program.
-Linked to Jefferson Medical College through UPenn, began Fall 2009. Class of 2013 here!
-Converted my remaining Montgomery GI Bill benefits to Post-9/11 GI Bill in August 2009. Used this to pay for my first year at Jeff.

Here's where my story gets good, I think:
-Jeff works on some crazy credit system. They say I took 66 credits my first year, I think 62 this coming year, and so on. So multiplying the Post-9/11 per-credit amount in PA time the number of credits taken per semester = FULL TUITION PAID. The Post-9/11 GI Bill has completely paid for my first year at Jeff to the tune of $44k & BAH.
-I signed with the Navy's HSCP program in mid-April 2010. I get E-6 with over 8 years in pay with BAH and COLA for Philadelphia. About $70k a year in my pocket. Tricare for myself and my family, the whole nine yards.

So what I have coming down the line:
-Had to contact the VA to have my Post-9/11 BAH and book stipend turned off. I owe them the overpayment from April-June 2010. About $3300 by my estimate.
-My school's certifying official has already certified me to the VA for 28.5 credits for this Fall. That will more than pay for my $23.5k tuition and fees bill. (28.5 credits x $886/credit = more than I need for Jeff!)
-I'll collect my active-duty USN HSCP pay for the remainder of med school.
-I'll unfortunately exhaust my Post-9/11 GI Bill before my fourth year of med school, since I used 9 months of Montgomery GI Bill before converting. A costly mistake, for sure. Oh well. Coming out of med school with only one year's tuition in loans isn't bad.

Bottom Line: I go to a civilian med school for free on my Post-9/11 GI Bill, and get paid $70k/year from the Navy. When I put the khaki's back on, I'll be an O-3 with over 10 years in for pay, and 8 years towards an active duty retirement.

Oh yeah, my wife is an USAF veteran. 6 years Labor & Delivery Nurse. She's planning to use her Post-9/11 GI Bill to get her M.S.N. and become a nurse practitioner. We'll use my USN HSCP pay to live, and she is still eligible for all tuition, fees, books, and BAH stipend despite me being active duty.

What do you think?

I forgot to mention that when I first joined the Navy, I joined through the BDCP program in early 2001. Instead of doing ROTC my final year of college, I signed through the Baccalaureate Degree Completion Plan and received E-3 pay and benefits for my last year. That year counted as IRR time toward my first 8-year contract.

Despite only having 5 years actual active duty, since I finished my 8-year contract out with IRR time, I now get E-6 with 8 years in pay in the HSCP program. I checked with my recruiter's office to make sure this was correct. They say it is! So after my three remaining years in med school and commissioning, I'll be receiving O-3 pay with 10 years in. One year later I should bump up to O-3 with 12 years in for pay purposes.

So... the way I figure it, with my prior service and the HSCP time counting as time towards retirement, by the time I'm done a 3-year residency and my commitment for HSCP, I'll have ~15 years total active duty towards retirement. The plan is to hang tough for the remainder to reach a 20-year active duty retirement. I'll hit the civilian world again when I'm about 45 years old.

Gatorfan44,

I saw that just recently in the PA-132 from Dec 2009.

I'll certainly talk to my recruiter's office about this soon. What worries me is that I completely resigned my commission about six months before applying to HSCP. My contract was complete; all required active duty and IRR time was finished. So I did not apply to HSCP as a military officer with any open contract to the USN, I was not even in the IRR.

I hope that my enlistment with the HSCP program should be reconsidered as a (prior) military officer per the PA-132, and not as a civilian.

Update: I just received word from my recruiter that they have to re-do my enlistment paperwork to bring me into the HSCP program with the E-7 paygrade.

Oh yeah!! 👍