A law meant to provide early retirement as a reward for National Guard and Reserve members who were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan is instead leaving many of them perplexed and frustrated, The Associated Press reports.
When Congress wrote the law three years ago, it said Guard and Reserve members called up for 90 days or more for war service or other federal duty would be credited for work “in any fiscal year” toward early retirement for each day they were mobilized. Earning the credit would allow them to retire before age 60 if they had 20 years of service.
But the Pentagon has interpreted that to mean a 90-day period of service had to be completely served within a single fiscal year. The federal fiscal year goes from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. So if a Guard member were to be deployed for three months beginning in September, the time wouldn’t count because the 90 days would be split between two fiscal years.
The situation has added insult to injury for troops already upset that Congress only included Guard and Reserve members deployed after the law was signed in early 2008, leaving out the 600,000 troops mobilized between the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the time the law was enacted. The combined issues could mean retirement will be delayed months or even years for thousands of Guard and Reserve members.
To fix the glitches would cost an estimated $2 billion, money that would be hard to find in the current budget crisis.
“It’s more than a mess,” said retired Navy Capt. Ike Puzon, director of government affairs at the Association of the United States Navy in Alexandria, Va.
About 800,000 Guard and Reserve troops have mobilized for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 1,100 have died. Others have come home from war to find their jobs downsized and little work available, The AP reports.
Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer David E. Clauss, 46, an electronics technician, is one such member looking for a job. The reservist was mobilized to do security in Groton, for almost two years after 9/11. He later did military customs duty, primarily in Kuwait, and then earned a Bronze Star for work in Afghanistan in 2008-2009 helping to train the Afghan military. About five months of his work in Afghanistan likely doesn’t count toward early retirement, nor does the almost four years of mobilization before 2008.
“I think it is sort of important for the government to help out the folks who have done multiple deployments,” said Clauss, of East Providence, R.I. “We’ve answered the call.”
