Very important note: A little known provision of the law, changed in 1980, states that if you are a commissioned officer or an enlisted with prior commissioned service, you must have at least 10 years of commissioned service to retire at your commissioned rank. If you have less than 10 years of commissioned service, and voluntarily retire, you retire at your enlisted rank, and only the highest 36 months of active duty enlisted base pay counts for retirement computation. The Service Secretary can waive this to 8 years. Note: The secretarial waiver authority expired on December 31, 2001.
Can anyone provide the reference(s) in the DOD pay manual, USC Title 10 chapter and section, AR's or other reg(s) that support this statement?
