How can I have my retirement discharge corrected/ updated?

Can you explain this for me? I am not the most luminous lightbulb in the universe. I don't understand: Permanent disability retirement occurs if the member is found unfit, the disability is determined permanent and stable and rated at a minimum of 30%. I don't know what permanent disability Retirment means.

Is your wife working in the medical field?


Permanent disability retirement: Permanent disability retirement occurs if the member is found unfit, the disability is determined permanent and stable and rated at a minimum of 30%, or the member has 20 years of military service (For Reserve Component members, this means at least 7200 retirement points).

MAJ Ken Landgren - Of course.
So, for starters, I am referring to the Medical Retirement in lieu of Regular Retirement. Yes, there is a part under retirement types that specifies a medical retirement for people with over 20 years. However, when we are talking about medical retirement during a MEB we are most often talking about a retirement in lieu of 20 year retirement. Also, the medical retirement for an over 20 year person is exactly the same as a regular retirement. The name may be different, but a person who retires at 20 years and applies for disability receives their VA rating before their official retirement date. For all practical purposes, it is exactly the same.

Permanent Disability refers to the Permanent Disabled Retirement List (PDRL) vs the Temporary Disabled Retirement List (TDRL). The TDRL need to be reevaluated every so many years to determine if they will stay on the retirement list, be removed, or moved to the permanent list. You see TDRL a lot with kids who come in and on their first term suddenly have major mental health disorders like PTSD (without an activating cause), bipolar disorder, other behavioral disorders where the SM hasn't been in long enough for it to be service connected, or physical disabilities due to an injury where a young person can be expected to be fully recovered in a few years.

My wife worked in medical admin for many, many years - specifically, medical evaluation boards and medical separations. We've had a lot of these conversations about medical ratings, VA ratings, and medical separations. She's not doing that right now because we are in Italy. We will see what the future holds.

SFC (Join to see) - Thank you for your response. Every time I think I understand medical retirement I get confused a couple years later. What confuses me sometimes is medical retirement for less than 20 years is separation with a lump sum. I have 20 years and was medically retired but the army goes by my longevity as opposed to the percentage the army gave me. Please correct me if my understandings are improper.

I ask about whether your wife is in the medical field because I strongly suspect your wife's knowledge can be of great value to the army. We need some kind of document to tie in the roles and responsibilities of:

- MEB Process.
- Commander's responsibilities.
- VA process to include disability pay.
- MTF and PCM.
- Medical care.
- The soldier.
- Social Security Disability.
- WTU.
- PEBLO

I wish I was on AD, so I could write the document. We need it to paint the picture for all who are involved in the MEB process. In the current state it's very confusing to the parties involved in regard to the big picture. I have some knowledge about the aforementioned parties, but I took that institutional knowledge away when I retired. Think about this endeavor. She could get some major kudos and the document is cutting edge. I just wanted to put a seed in both of you. The army does not have any document like that because it makes too much sense.

I have always looked at how can the process get better thus I took a week to teach myself how to use DTS to create a DTS Smart Book. Of course, someone took over the file and put their name on it. That is the army way! lol

Do you like military history and theories on warfare?



https://www.coursehero.com/file/82560837/2016-DTS-SMART-BOOKpdf/

PO1 (Join to see) - When you say, "they found me unfit to continue" - who is "they"? When you have a condition that makes you unable to meet the standards of medical fitness, you are referred to a MEB (Medical Evaluation Board). You have evaluation exams, a review of your medical records, input from your command, and input from the servicemember - all are looked at by the MEB and they give a decision - you do or do not meet the medical standards. This is passed to a PEB (Physical Evaluation Board).

The PEB is the board that actually makes the determination if your conditions make you unfit for duty, or if they determine none do, return you to duty (either full back doing what you did before or some modification .. maybe a MOS change .. limited duty options .. etc).

When you say, "They determined", it's confusing, because only the PEB has the authority to make that determination. Up until then, it's only a recommendation from either the medical or command side. The PEB is the only one that can medically retire you.

COL Randall C. When I say they I mean the medical staff at the command. I was informed by them that they were forwarding everything to the board for a decision.

PO1 (Join to see) - Sounds like it never got to the MEB or if it did, for some reason a formal entry wasn't made. If it was, there are a bunch of things that would have kicked in (being assigned a representative, called a PEBLO, that guides you through the process ... being entered in for C&P exams from the VA ... referred to legal representation for consultation .. etc).

Not sure why things went down this way as I'm sure there is another part of the story missing. However you go here, the end result would have been the same though. There is no advantage to you being medically retired over your longevity retirement.

By law, if you were a chapter 61 retiree (i.e., medically retired), you cannot get two "military related disability" payments (i.e., medical retirement and VA disability payment) unless there are injuries that are combat related (normally your retirement pay is 'offset' by the amount of your VA payment)*. If there are combat related injuries, then chapter 61 retirees cannot have more than what they would be entitled to under a normal retirement**

Bottom line: If you have a longevity retirement, then you are getting the maximum you'd be able to get. If you had a medical retirement, it would be offset by your VA payments or it would max out at what your longevity retirement would be.
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* Special Rules for Chapter 61 Disability Retirees: Members retired for disability under Chapter 61 of title 10 United States Code may be entitled to CRDP only if they have at least 20 years of service qualifying for regular or reserve retirement. Additionally, any disability retired pay that is in excess of retired pay to which that member would be otherwise entitled (i.e., for years of service) remains subject to offset and may not be restored under the CRDP program.
** Special Rules for Chapter 61 Disability Retirees: According to law, members retired for disability under Chapter 61 of title 10 United States Code must have the CRSC entitlement limited to an amount that when combined with any military retired pay remaining after offset for VA disability compensation will not exceed the retired pay they would otherwise be entitled to for retirement computed for years of service (i.e., 2 1/2 percent x years of service x pay base).

COL Randall C. I was waiting for a PEBLO to assist me but I never got that call and I did question the staff about that because I did some research on my own about the medical retirement process. But I do want to say thank you COL for all the info you have giving me about this issue.

I was tracking it with the medical staff because they had to submit the information forward to be reviewed. I had surgery on my back it was service connected I even got the a VA rating of 40% for it.

PO1 (Join to see) - I suspect that your VA rating would pay more than your reserve retirement pay. I wonder if that was a factor why they went that way? But the VA rating is more important.