[Vision2020] An End of Retirement as You Know It

[Tom Hansen]

Note to roger Falen:  Is this the type support for our troops we can 
anticipate with further permanent tax cuts?

If interested, here is a short sampling of government defense contracts:

http://www.defenselink.mil/Contracts/

>From the February 11, 2008 (that's right, it's always a week ahead) 
edition of the Army Times -

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An end of retirement as you know it?

Commission proposes all troops wait 20 or more years to draw retiree pay
By William H. McMichael - bmcmichael at militarytimes.com
Posted : February 11, 2008

A congressionally chartered commission has called for scrapping the entire 
military retirement system and making active-duty troops wait until at 
least age 57 or longer to begin drawing retired pay.

The proposal, which would spell the end of the current active-duty system 
that pays nondisability retirement immediately after a service member 
completes a minimum of 20 years of service, is among 95 recommendations in 
the final report of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserve, 
which went well beyond its original charter to review the structure and 
management of the reserve components and delved into personnel policies 
for active-duty members.

Under current retirement rules, an active-duty member is eligible for 
retired pay immediately after completing a minimum of 20 years of service, 
which can be as young as age 37. However, reservists must wait until age 
60 to draw retired pay, although a law signed Jan. 28 by President Bush 
allows reservists to draw retired pay 90 days earlier than age 60 for 
every 90 days of mobilization in support of a contingency operation.

Under the commission’s plan, a revamped retired system would grant limited 
retirement benefits starting at 10 years of service, although payments 
would not begin until age 62. Those who serve at least 20 years could 
receive payments at age 60, and those who serve 30 years at age 57.

Under the plan, troops could begin drawing retirement pay at younger ages, 
but the annuity would be reduced 5 percent for each year that a member is 
under the statutory minimum retirement age. The commission said that would 
bring the military in line with the Federal Employees Retirement System.

The commission concluded that combining the training, promotion and 
management of active and reserve troops into one system is the only way 
the nation’s military can become a truly efficient operational force for 
the future. 

“The increasing cost of personnel, and the challenges of recruiting and 
retaining qualified individuals, will, we believe, inevitably require 
reductions in the size of the active force,” states the 432-page report, 
released Jan. 31. “This shrinking active force will necessarily be 
accompanied by an increased reliance on reserve forces for operations, 
particularly for homeland missions. The overall effectiveness of those 
forces will depend on greater integration of the reserves with the active 
component.” 

The commission argued that modifying the 20-year retirements would give 
the services an incentive to retain troops whom they want to keep for more 
than 10 years but for less than 20. Additional pay or bonuses would be 
needed to keep such troops in uniform beyond 10 years in order to maintain 
retention rates. 

“As part of the reformed retirement system, retention would be encouraged 
by making service members eligible to receive ‘gate pay’ at pivotal years 
of service,” the report said. “Such pay would come in the form of a bonus 
equal to a percentage of annual basic pay at the end of the year of 
service, at the discretion of the services.”

In addition, the report said Congress should expand current law to permit 
all service members to receive up to 5 percent of annual basic pay in 
matching government contributions to the Thrift Savings Plan. Service 
members currently receive no government matching funds for TSP 
contributions.

“The government’s contribution would vest at 10 years of service, and the 
Thrift Savings Plan benefit would be portable and thus capable of being 
rolled over into a civilian 401(k) account,” the report said.

Among the report’s other recommendations:

• The military’s promotion system should be competency-based vs. time-
based.

• Active and reserve officer personnel management systems should be merged 
into a single system.

• The number of duty statuses should be reduced from 29 to two — on active 
duty or off.

• The Pentagon should implement a combined pay and personnel system to 
eliminate problems with incorrect pay, low data quality, multiple 
personnel files and inaccurate credit for service.

• The Guard and reserve should be given the clear lead in Defense 
Department homeland security missions within U.S. borders.

The recruiting and job market landscape has shifted in dramatic ways, the 
commission said, which means the Defense Department “must recruit, train 
and maintain a technologically advanced force in an era that will be 
characterized by ever-increasing competition for a shrinking pool of 
qualified individuals whose expectations about career paths and mobility 
are changing dramatically.”

“We need to look at our manpower assets with a totally integrated 
approach,” commission Chairman Arnold Punaro said.

For active and reserve service members, such a system would create 
a “seamless” transition to and from active duty — “on-ramps” and “off-
ramps,” as Navy personnel officials have described the concept. Basing 
promotions on competency rather than time would keep troops competitive 
within the system.

The 95 recommendations in the report also include a call for the reserves 
to be reorganized into two formal categories: operational and strategic 
reserve forces.

The operational reserve would consist of Selected Reserve units and 
individual mobilization augmentees who would deploy periodically. The 
strategic reserve would include Selected Reserve personnel and augmentees 
not scheduled for rotational active-duty tours and the “most ready, 
operationally current and willing members of the Individual Ready Reserve.”

The commission also called for scrapping the Standby Reserve category and 
said members who are not “viable mobilization assets should be excluded 
from the total reserve force.”

The Defense Department would have to consistently provide the support 
needed to ensure the sustained viability of both forces, and Congress and 
the Pentagon would determine the missions for each.

“There used to be an understanding that if you were ready for the away 
game, you were ready for the home game,” Punaro said. “Most everyone 
admits that’s not the case anymore. We need a very ready force at home in 
peacetime, just like we need a ready force for the overseas mission.”

The reserves were conceived as a strategic force that would be called to 
active duty only in national emergencies. But they have morphed over the 
past 18 years, beginning with the 1991 Persian Gulf War and spurred by the 
military drawdown of the 1990s, into an operational reserve that is now 
regularly called upon to meet the demands of the wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan.

“It’s clear that if you hadn’t had an operational Guard and reserve, you 
would have had to go back to the draft, which I think everyone agrees 
is ... pretty unacceptable,” Punaro said.

Punaro said he is “very bullish” on the prospects for the commission’s 
work to receive serious attention.

Half of the 95 recommendations “can be done immediately,” he said. About 
40 will require congressional or presidential action, according to the 
report. 

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Pro patria, 
 
Tom Hansen
SFC, US Army (Retired)
Moscow, Idaho
 
"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the 
tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime." 
 
-- Adlai E. Stevenson,
Jr.

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