Thanks for all the info in this thread so far!
Wow! Talk about feeling like Big Brother is watching! I'm starting to get paranoid.
vxc961 said:
"I called RESFOR and was told (I'm paraphrasing) "we don't want to pay retirement to O-5's who get points by learning about chaplain's history". "
That sounds like me! That's exactly what I did during my last Anniversary Year! (although I am an O-4).
also,
USNJahawk said:
"Internal "policy" has been they don't want people doing more than 3 years in a row I guess, but when I pushed on that, he backtracked a little to say that it is more "operational guidance","
Again, Your Honor, I Plead Guilty!
All this talk is making me seriously think about going back to SELRES. I have 17 years on the books and can sign up for 3 quick years and make some $ in the process, including a bonus I think, but a good portion of that will most likely go to me paying air fare/rental car to travel to my Unit.
(I hope Big Brother sees this and puts me back on His good side)
All I have to do is brace myself for the "Death by Paperwork" feeling one gets as an Officer in a SELRES Unit.
(I hope Big Brother doesn't see that last bit).
Complete rant post here…..
It is obviously not hard to find an O-5 or above that would be willing to tell you they don't want you hanging out in the IRR. That's not news. But they have a harder time telling you how much you should do to get over the mythical hurdle of judgment to ‘deserve’ a reserve retirement. If they ultimately conclude that you need to be drilling every year you weren't AD over 20 years, I wouldn't have been able to meet that standard. Either way, I always appreciate our judgmental military culture. The guy on the phone doesn’t pay your retirement, so get off the horse of ‘we’ don’t want to pay retirements to o-5’s who do the Chaplain’s History course.
Stop being passive aggressive and put something down in writing on what’s acceptable, and then stop judging people if they follow the establish rules. It’s easy to spout some nonsense on the phone when you don’t have to back it up with official U.S. Code or administrative/agency law. We didn’t make the rules, and no one cared to ask us. This isn't rocket science. I'm trying to get at least 50 points a year. Tell me what is a legal way to do that. But be honest and don't change the rules constantly because the real objective is to obstruct any non-drilling IRR member from obtaining a retirement. They seem to hate the idea of a non-drilling IRR member getting a retirement at all.
If this isn't what's really going on, then it devolves into absurdity. You deserve it because you signed up for JPME 1 distance learning; you don't because you did the basic Airman course on NETC. Who should judge? Who knows, but write it down and communicate the message. The law says if we get 50 points a year for 20 years, we qualify for a retirement. It does NOT say the services have to provide correspondence courses to get those points. If it's too difficult to approve courses case by case, just get rid of them then, and I'll do the VTU or SELRES if a retirement is still worth the effort.
(Big Brother, please forgive me for my opinions)