Colleagues:
Here (below) is the text of section 10147 of title 10 of the United States Code. It includes "active duty for training" as well as "scheduled drills and training periods." Thus, active duty for training (ADT) does not count toward exhausting your 5-year limit with a specific employer.
You cannot always depend on the wording of the orders--the orders-writers still have not come to understand USERRA, although it was enacted 28.5 years ago.
Involuntary mobilizations are excluded from the 5-year limit under section 4312(c)(4)(A) of USERRA. That subsection does not require a determination from the Service Secretary for it to apply--some of the other subsections do require a Service Secretary determination.
Most of USERRA is not that complicated, but the 5-year limit is complicated. But if you limit yourself to doing your required Reserve Component training and to responding to mobilization orders, as required, you do not need to worry about the 5-year limit, because everything that you do is exempted from the limit. If you are a serial volunteer, you need to keep track of your own 5-year limit to protect your right to return to your civilian job.
Please read my Law Review 16043 (May 2016) for a detailed discussion of what counts and what does not count in computing the 5-year limit. Please read Law Review 15116 (December 2015) for a primer on USERRA. Go to
www.roa.org/lawcenter to find a numerical (chronological) index and a subject index.
"(a) Except as specifically provided in regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of Defense, or by the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, each person who is enlisted, inducted, or appointed in an armed force, and who becomes a member of the Ready Reserve under any provision of law except section 513 or 10145(b) of this title [10 USCS § 513 or 10145(b)], shall be required, while in the Ready Reserve, to—
(1) participate in at least 48 scheduled drills or training periods during each year and serve on active duty for training of not less than 14 days (exclusive of traveltime) during each year; or
(2) serve on active duty for training not more than 30 days during each year.
(b) A member who has served on active duty for one year or longer may not be required to perform a period of active duty for training if the first day of that period falls during the last 120 days of the member’s required membership in the Ready Reserve."
Samuel F. Wright
10 USCS § 10147