Military Officer - March 2008 - (Page 36) washingtonscene about medications and their availability and cost at www.tricareformularysearch.org. But it’s at least a first-ever beachhead on this issue. Now that Congress explicitly has recognized the obsolescence of a retirement system built 50 years ago for a different force and the Cold War, we will drive toward comprehensive reform until it’s achieved. The next step is to make the 90 days retirement credit for 90 days active service change retroactive to cover all active service in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era. Since then, more than 600,000 Guard and Reserve warriors have served contingency operation active duty. More than 142,000 have served multiple tours. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) has introduced H.R. 4930 to accomplish the goal of making the retirement credit retroactive to Sept. 11, 2001. The nation simply can’t ignore that service and sacrifice is essential in building a fairer reserve retirement system. For the long run, MOAA continues to support proposals that would establish age and service criteria for determining the reserve retirement age. One approach championed by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) a few years ago would permit reservists with at least 20 years of qualifying service to retire early by one year for every two years of longevity service past 20 years. A variant on this concept is to use reserve retirement point thresholds in determining a reduced retirement age. Proposals that simply would change the reserve retirement age from 60 to 55, including H.R. 690, cosponsored by Rep. Jim Saxton (R-N.J.), and S. 1243, cosponsored by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), are still in play, and MOAA supports them. But it’s more likely going forward that Congress will tie additional service, including operational service, to any broad plan to lower the reserve retirement age. MOAA strongly believes such proposals must include TRICARE eligibility. It makes no sense to provide access to TRICARE (TRICARE Reserve Select) for Reserve Retirement: What’s Next? Retroactive war service credit tops agenda. M Guard/Reserve Report Coming ■ At press time, the President’s Commission on the National Guard and Reserves was due to issue its report in late January. Check next month’s “Washington Scene” for a summary of commission recommendations on personnel, compensation, and more. OAA and its partners in The Military Coalition have been fighting for more than six years to improve the reserve retirement system to better match “operational reserve” service demands for today’s National Guard and Reserve warriors. The new FY 2008 Defense Authorization Act includes an important first step on reserve retirement. Much more must be done, but let’s not downplay the significance of this breakthrough. The new legislation includes language, sponsored by Sen. Saxby Chambliss (RGa.), that lowers the reserve retirement age below age 60 by three months for each cumulative 90 days of active duty served on “contingency operation” orders. The activation orders, whether involuntary or not, must indicate a contingency operation. The activated servicemember need not be deployed to qualify. Reservists could retire as early as age 50 with 10 years’ qualifying active duty service, if otherwise qualified for a reserve retirement. The pending change, however, is prospective only. That means only active duty service after the date the defense bill was signed into law Jan. 28 will be credited toward reducing the retirement age. A second concern is that reservists who qualify under the new law to retire before age 60 would not be entitled to TRICARE until they reach age 60. MOAA strongly believes the new retirement upgrade doesn’t go far enough. 36 MILITARY OFFICER MARCH 2008 http://www.tricareformularysearch.org
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.