I thought this was a useful remark regarding retirement made by NAVYDDS in another thread.
"Technically, the IRR should be the same for the AF as it is for the Navy, but I cannot say for 100% certainty. For us in the Navy, you can stay on the IRR until 20 years as long as you meet a few things. First of all, when you are on the IRR, you are eligible for promotion and your package goes to the board whether you want it to or not. After so many years, if you do not get promoted to the next rank, you will be administratively separated. So, if you just sit there on the IRR without doing anything with the military for let's say 6 years and you don't get promoted to O-4 or if you make O-4 but never make O-5, they might very well administratively separate you because you couldn't make rank. So, you need to show you are at least maintaining a minimal amount of military structure. For the Navy, you can take online courses that will show you are at least doing something. how much it helps, I don't know. What talking those courses does help is making each year a credible year toward retirement. In order for each year on the IRR to count toward retirement, you have to maintain a certain number of reserve credit (drill)days. These can be obtained by takign online courses, drilling with the reservists or requesting to do 2 weeks drill time each year along side the active reservists. The total number of credits you need to make it a credible year is 50. You automatically get 15 days just for being on the IRR, so realistically you only need 3 credits per month or 35 more credits. When I was on the IRR, I would spend a weekend and each night for a week to bust out as many as I could. I got between 40 and 60 credits done this way. That is the equivilent of drilling for 40-60 days. Pretty nice. So, I wasted one weekend and each night for a week to make a year count toward retirement should I choose only to retire from the reserves. Not bad at all. Now, if you don't get 50 credit days, which is the minimum you need, then the year on the IRR will not count toward retirement and eventually you will be released. It would be crazy to be in the IRR for 20 years if you don't make each year count.
No, you will not be automatically switched over to active duty after the 8 years is up. Now, if you wanted to go back to active duty, you could, but you will not be switched over. Once you have served 8 years (active, active reserve and IRR time), your obligation is over and you can get out at anytime once you have submitted the proper paperwork to resign your commission and it is approved."
