Leaves and Passes. Army personnel are in general entitled to leave at the rate of 22 days per month, or 30 days for a complete year, of active service. Leaves are approved by local commanders if military requirements per

mit. Oversea personnel may be granted emergency leave in the United States if a personal emergency requires their presence at home. Commanders may also grant special passes for up to 72 hours, not chargeable as leave.

RESERVE COMPONENTS Most members of the Army Reserve and National Guard are not serving on continuous Federal active duty. A reservist assigned to a reserve unit must participate in its scheduled drills and in 15 to 17 days of annual field training. For each drill session attended he earns one day's pay of his grade (allowances

NOT ON ACTIVE DUTY

are not included). During the annual field training, he receives the pay and allowances of a member of the active Army. Except for such periods of active duty, reservists are not eligible for post exchange and commissary privileges, medical care, or the other benefits afforded to members of the Active Army.

Army personnel may qualify for retirement by length of service, by age, or because of physical disability. Monthly retired pay based on length of service or age is computed by multiplying the basic monthly pay of the grade in which retired by 22% times the years of service creditable for basic pay. Pay for physical disability retirement is computed by multiplying the basic monthly pay of the grade in which retired either by the percentage of disability awarded or by 22% times the years of creditable active service. However, retired pay may not exceed 75% of basic pay. The retired pay as thus computed is reduced by amounts withheld for Federal income tax, insurance allotments, annuity payments under the Uniformed Services Contingency Option Act of 1953, or other debits to the member's account.

Public Law 85-422, which fixed the rates of pay for the Active Army shown earlier in this chapter, also provided that personnel retired before 1 June 1958 would receive a 6% increase in their retired pay and that personnel retiring after 31 May 1958 would compute their retired pay using the rates shown

for the Active Army. The accompanying tables therefore show the rates of retired pay after 20 years service and after 30 years service for both groups.

RETIREMENT FOR LENGTH OF SERVICE; OFFICERS. An officer may request retirement after 20 or more years of active service. At least 10 years of this must have been commissioned service if he is either a reserve commissioned officer or a Regular commissioned officer with less than 30 years' service. Such requests are acted upon in accordance with policies in effect at the time.

A Regular officer in the permanent grade of lieutenant-colonel, who has not been selected for promotion to the permanent grade of colonel before completing 28 years of service, is retired. A Regular officer in the grade of colonel or brigadier general, who has not been selected for promotion to a higher permanent grade after serving 5 years in grade or completing 30 years of service, whichever is later, is retired (unless he is a brigadier general selected for retention to age 60). A Regular officer in the grade of major general is

Pay

Grade

O-10 O-9

4

Pay Grade

O-10

O-8

31

21

O-11

W-4

W-3

1 See below.

retired after serving 5 years in grade or completing 35 years of service, whichever is later, unless he is approved for retention to the age of 60 or to age 64 if he is serving in grade O-9 or O-10.

The grade which an officer holds on the retired list, and on which his retired pay is computed, is either the grade in which he retired, or any higher temporary grade which he may have held in the past provided he held it satisfactorily for at least six months.

Regular officers retired for length of service are subject to recall to active duty at any time. Retired Reserve officers may be recalled only with their consent.

RETIREMENT FOR LENGTH OF SERVICE; ENLISTED MEMBERS. Enlisted personnel of the Regular Army may request retirement after 20 or more years' active service. They are retired in the grade held at the time of retirement. If an enlisted member held a

higher grade or rank on active duty, he or she will be advanced to the highest temporary grade satisfactorily held after completing 30 years total service (active plus retired).

RETIREMENT FOR AGE. If not retired earlier, officers in the permanent grade of brigadier general or below are retired at age 60; permanent major generals, at age 62. Professors of the United States Military Academy are retired at age 64. Male warrant officers are retired at age 62 if they have completed 20 years service; female warrant officers, at age 55 if they have completed 20 years service. There is at present no provision of law for retiring enlisted personnel for age.

RETIREMENT FOR PHYSICAL DISABILITY. If a member of the Army becomes permanently disqualified for active duty as a result of a service-connected disability, not brought about by his own misconduct or negligence, and

if the extent of disability is 30% or over, he may be retired for physical disability. Retirement is either in the grade held at the time or in the highest temporary grade ever held satisfactorily for at least 6 months. A part of the retired pay, computed on the basis of percentage of disability, is exempt from Federal income tax. If disability is less than 30% and the member does not qualify for retirement by length of service, he receives severance pay in the amount of two months' pay for each active year of active service; however, the total severance pay received may not exceed the equivalent of 24 months' pay.

If there is uncertainty as to whether the disability is permanent, the individual is placed on the Temporary Disability Retired List and is periodically reexamined. Based on such examinations, he or she is either returned to active duty or permanently retired.

RETIRED PAY FOR INACTIVE SERVICE. Members or former members of the Army Reserve and the National Guard are eligible for retired pay upon attaining age 60, provided they submit an application for it, and if they have completed 20 years of satisfactory Federal service, the last 8 years of which were service in a reserve component, and have served on active duty during some portion of either of the periods 6 April 1917-11 November 1918 or 9 September 1940-31 December 1946. Retired pay is based on the highest grade satisfactorily held during the entire period of service. Its amount is determined by applying the "22% per year of active service" formula to years of active service, computed as follows: 1 day for each day of active duty; 50 days for each year of other than active duty prior to 1 July 1949; after that date, 1 day for each inactive duty training point up to the maximum of 60 days per year; the total days, divided by 360, give the years of active service to be used in the formula.

MILITARY PRIVILEGES OF RETIRED PERSONNEL. Retired personnel are entitled to travel allowances for themselves from their last duty station to a home of selection, provided they had 8 or more years of continuous active duty immediately preceding retire

ment. If they are retired in pay grade E-4 (with over 4 years service) or higher, they are also entitled to travel allowances for dependents and to transportation of household goods. Those who do not meet the 8-year requirement are entitled to the same allowances and transportation to their home of record.

Retired personnel may use the facilities of an Army post or installation if the commanding officer determines that this can properly be permitted. Normally the facilities thus made available include commissaries, post exchanges, theaters, and officer or NCO open

messes.

All Army members retired with pay are eligible for medical treatment and hospitalization, except those retired for 20 years of Reserve service who had less than 8 years of active duty. The dependents of eligible retired personnel are also eligible for such benefits.

SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS. Retired Army personnel may be entitled to receive Social Security benefits in addition to retired pay. In general, Army personnel received free wage credits for service during the periods 16 September 1940 to 24 July 1947 and 25 July 1951 to 31 December 1956. Effective 1 January 1957, members of the Army began contributing 24% of their basic pay (up to $4,200 per year) to Social Security. The determination of the amount of benefits due, on the basis of free wage credit, is very complex; information thereon, and on retirement and survivor benefits generally may be obtained at any Social Security or Veterans Administration office. Those wage credits contributed by members after 1 January 1957 serve to qualify them for Social Security benefits in addition to Army retired pay.

VETERAN'S BENEFITS. For information on this subject see chapter 23.

LIMITATIONS ON DUAL COMPENSATION. The Act of 31 July 1894, as amended (5 USC 62), provides that no person who holds an office under the Government with an annual compensation of $2,500 or over shall be appointed to hold another Government office to which compensation is attached. In effect this prevents a retired officer or warrant officer of the Regular Army

from accepting employment with the Federal Government, if his retired pay or the pay of the office exceeds $2,500 annually. This act applies only to retired officers and warrant officers of the Regular Army, and is not applicable to those retired for physical disability, those employed on temporary or parttime basis, those employed by a nonappropriated fund activity, those appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, or those elected to public office.

The Act of 30 June 1932, as amended (5 USC 59a), provides that a person's combined retired pay for service as a commissioned officer and pay of a Federal office may not exceed $10,000. This

act applies only to commissioned officers (regular and in part to reserve); and it does not apply to officers who are retired for disability incurred in combat with an enemy of the United States, or caused by an instrumentality of war, in line of duty, during a period of war or the Korean conflict; or to officers who continue to hold a reserve commission. Retired personnel who receive pay for or on account of commissioned service (except those retired for disability incurred in combat, or resulting from an instrumentality of war in line of duty) must report all employment in a civilian capacity with the U. S. Government to the Retired Pay Division, Finance Center, U. S. Army, Indianapolis 49, Indiana.