Only eligible active duty service as a member of the Ready Reserve on or after 29 Jan 2008 can be credited for purposes of receiving retirement pay below age 60.
Eligibility reduced below age 60 by 3 months for each cumulative total of 90 eligible days of active duty service per fiscal year.
The National Defense Authorization Act for 2008, section 647, amended USC Title 10, section 12731, reducing the eligibility age for Reserve retirement pay.
Official calculation of your NDAA eligibility date is conducted in the processing of your retirement. The information below is provided for your own calculations.
Service Credit for Reserve Retirement
Retired members called to AD (10 U.S.C. § 688), Mobilized (declared by Congress) (10 U.S.C. § 12301(a), Mobilized (declared by President) (10 U.S.C. § 12302), Mobilized for other than war or national emergency (10 U.S.C. § 12304), Stop loss (10 U.S.C. § 12305), National Guard in federal service to repel invasion, suppress rebellion; enable execution of laws (10 U.S.C. § 12406), National Guard in federal service to suppress insurrections against another state; enforce federal authority; respond to emergencies; suppress rebellion prevent interference with state law (10 U.S.C. chapter 15)
Any other provision of law during a war or during a national emergency declared by the President or Congress.
Voluntary Active Duty Service Eligibility
Voluntary Service under 10 U.S.C. § 12301(d) includes both MPA funded orders and RPN funded orders for the following active duty eligible service:
Voluntary active duty (definite recalls), Operational Support (ADOS - formerly ADSW), ADT (except Annual Training), Initial ADT (IADT)
Other Training Duty (ODT), Medical treatment, medical evaluation for disability purposes or medical study (10 U.S.C. § 12301(h), Operation Noble Eagle, Operation Enduring Freedom.
Exceptions and Ineligible Duty
Not creditable AD service for purposes of reducing eligibility age for retired pay:
As a Training and Administration of the Reserve (TAR) or Active Guard Reserve (AGR) member (10 U.S.C. § 12310), Annual Training (10 U.S.C. § 12301(b), While in captive status (10 U.S.C. § 12301(g), Medical treatment, medical evaluation for disability purposes or medical study (10 U.S.C. §12301(h), As a member not assigned to, or participating satisfactorily in units (10 U.S.C. § 12303), Under active duty agreements (10 U.S.C. § 12311), Disciplinary proceedings/courts-martial (10 U.S.C. § 12315), Muster duty (10 U.S.C. §12319), As a member of the Regular Component.
Inactive Duty is not eligible for reducing eligibility age for retired pay and IDTT.
Example Scenario
Seaman Smith
- Performed 5 days of ADT in February 2008
- Volunteered for 180 Days of active duty service (ADOS) from 1 June 2008 to 30 November 2008
- 127 days performed in FY 2008
- 62 days performed in FY 2009
- All of the active duty time performed could not be credited toward reduced retirement age eligibility because it was Active Duty Time performed under circumstances permitted under the new law (i.e., orders for voluntary service, 10 U.S.C. § 12301 (d))
- Credited time must total 90 days or multiples of 90 days in the aggregate per fiscal year in order to correspondingly reduce his retirement age by 3 months, or multiples of 3 months
- Reduced his retirement age by 3 months (for FY 2008)
- If he performed 53 additional days of active service after January 28, 2008 and prior to going on active duty June 1, 2008, he would have served on Active Duty for 180 days in the aggregate in FY 2008. This would have made him eligible to reduce his retirement age by 6 months instead of 3.
- Served on Active Duty 61 days in FY 2009. No early retirement adjustment.
- Would need and additional 29 days in FY 2009 in order to reduce his retirement date by 3 months.
For FY15 NDAA and Forward, eligible service is calculated across 2 Fiscal Years.
NDAA Calculator
The calculation of NDAA eligibility will be conducted during the retirement (to the Gray Area) and again in the With Pay processes Only. Courtesy calculations will not be entertained. To facilitate an estimation of your NDAA Eligibility date, the Excel file (link below) is provided for your own Unofficial calculations.
Unofficial NDAA Calculator
Data to enter into Unofficial NDAA Calculator:
1) Enter in your date of birth.
2) Consolidate ADT orders by fiscal year and enter into column C (only days not included on a DD-214). If you were on other qualifying orders that were less than 90-days in duration and did not receive a DD-214, you would enter in the days by fiscal year in column C as well.
3) Enter in DD-214 periods.
Please note that calculation is reduced by 3 months for every 90 days of aggregate earned (NOT 90 days for 90 days; an example would be 8/15/2030 reduced by 3 months is 5/15/2030 vice reduced by 90 days which is 5/17/2030).