Do I get credit for my Reserve time when I go active duty?

Question

I was active for four and a half years, then Reserves for four years, and now I'm going active (into a different branch, losing rank btw). I'm wondering if all my previous time will count towards my retirement and if my previous time will count as far as pay goes (even though I'm taking a loss in grade, do I still get eight years time in service on the pay chart). Thank you!

Answer 1

Yes and no.

The reserve time will not count as 4 years of service.

You basicly have to add up the days you trained while in the reserves. Thats how many days time in service it will add.

Generally 38 days per year.

You you have 4.5 years active, then 5 months while in the reserves. That is, if you weren't activated while in the reserves.

And you were in the drilling reserves, not the inactive reserves.

Inactive reserves time doesn't count for anything.

So you looking at having about 5 years time in service total.

It will be on your first LES.

Even though you lost rank, they might not have started your date of rank the day you went back to active duty.

They might have back dated it, to give you some constructive time in rank.

Again, that will be on your first LES.

For retirement purposes, your 4 years in the reserves will count as 152 days of active duty service.

You might gain some additional retirement service time, because of Reserve rules about calculating retirement pay, additional bonus days added for each year of reserve service.

But the easist way for you to look at it, is to count your reserve service as 5 months active duty time.

Answer 2

Active Duty Retirement Calculator

Answer 3

Army Reserve Retirement Calculator

Answer 4

All of your reserve time will count as years of service for pay. Meaning you will be paid at whatever rank based on over 8 years of service (DoDFMR Vol 7A, Ch 1). Only the time that you spent on ADT will count for an Active Duty Retirement. You can get this from your retirement points worksheet from HRC-St Louis. If you choose to do a Reserve retirement than all the points earned while in the reserves will count towards your Reserve retirement.

Answer 5

you previous AD time counts day for day. your Reserve time does not..well, it does, but only for actual DRILL days, not the entire year. so one w/e a month plus 14 days for your two weeks training, plus any activated time called up for deployment/natural disasters count.

so no, you won't get paid as an E4 or whatever with 8 years. More like 5, maybe 6 years depending on how much Activated time in the Reserves you actually had.

Not sure how reserves time is computed for retirement purposes, but I would imagine similar to how it is computed for pay purposes..Drill/activateion only.

Answer 6

Usually when a reservist goes active duty you will get credit for one day of active duty for every retirement point that you have acquired in the reserves. So, lets say for example that in four years you accumulated 400 points, you get active credit for one year and 35 days active duty plus the amount of active duty time you had before.

Answer 7

Short answer is yes...but you won't get 8 years time in service. Contact your personnel office. The Air Force has an instruction with a chart, Army and Navy should have equivilant.

Answer 8

Absolutely.
For specific details in your case, make an appt with someone in finance who can help you figure out what this does to your retirement, money wise..
Good luck.

Answer 9

Yes. It's all about TIS[time in service], TIG[time in grade]. See the personnel office for details. It's too important to deal with it on Yahoo.