USAR INDIVIDUAL READY RESERVE PROGRAM
FOREWORD
USAR INDIVIDUAL READY RESERVE PROGRAM
FOREWORD
I have developed this web page to help bridge an information gap about a particular aspect of service in the U.S. Army Reserves, namely the Individual Ready Reserves, hereinafter referred to as the IRR. Brief mention will be made about other forms of Reserve service generally referenced as the "Selected Reserves", which generally takes the form of service in the drilling component of the U.S. Army Reserves, The National Guard, and the Individual Mobilization Augmentee. The intent is not to go into any depth with these forms of service in the Reserves, rather to mention them as they pertain to service in the IRR. Any mistakes made are my own. Please send feedback on this page to feedback@west-point.org.
Why serve in the IRR? This is a question that is frequently asked, but often answered incorrectly. I will approach it from two perspectives, namely that of the Army, and that of the individual.
The Army’s position on the matter is pretty clear. The IRR represents an excellent return on investment, principally as a mobilization asset. IRR soldiers are generally well trained in their military occupational specialty, and are considered an asset available to the Army in the event of full mobilization. What constitutes full mobilization? In broad terms, full mobilization is when there is a "million man callup" This is when the President deems a war or national emergency has taken place (or is imminent), and is granted authority to mobilize Reserve forces to meet such an emergency. Frequently the question arises, when was the last time that a million man callup was exercised? That was during the Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm). Since that time, there have been limited callups for Reserve components for specific operations, but none of these qualified for IRR activation.
Another frequently asked question about IRR callups is what is my specific probability of getting mobilized in the event of a million man callup? Guidance on such matters exist at Department of the Army and DoD, but some general assumptions can be made about the relative likelihood of a particular soldier getting mobilized. Generall Army planning assumptions that are stated in the Command and General Staff Officer course indicate that the Army considers you highly ready for mobilization if you have been 0-1.5 years removed from active duty status. This would typically require little or no retraining for mobilization. If you have been 1.5 –3.0 years removed from active duty, the Army considers you as a mobilization asset that will require some form of retraining/requalification. What does this imply? If you are an aviator, you could likely expect to be sent to Fort Rucker for the refresher course. If you are a tanker or an infantrymen, expect to be sent to a similar 3-4 week refresher course for your branch. If you are more than 3 years removed from active duty, the Army considers you as needing full retraining. Although full retraining is not specified as to the form it takes, my guess would be that it might likely involve re-sitting the advanced course for most branches, and for an aviator going back through an abbreviated form of flight school. The Army however, does not get explicit in this area.
In the case of actual mobilization for a million man callup, it would not be out of the question for a retiree to be recalled to active duty before an IRR soldier, particularly if the retiree retired within the past 3 years and the IRR soldier was separated from active duty longer than 3 years. As is the case with anything involving the Army, there are always exceptions to the rule. For example, there were many IRR soldiers who had not served on active duty for over 3 years when Operation Desert Shield began. Some of these officers were my classmates. Answering the call to duty, these officers requested activation back to active duty and assignment to a combat theater. Several served with distinction. In all instances, these officers specifically made the request to the Department of the Army, rather than DA mobilizing the individual soldier.
All of the explanations above detail why the Army would want you to serve in the IRR. What about you? There are many reasons to serve in the IRR, and I will detail those below.
First, you may have a commitment from active duty that compels your service in the IRR. This is typically the case for an academy grad that leaves active duty at the 5 year mark, but prior to 8 years of service. Service Academy graduates typically have an active duty commitment of five years and a total service commitment of 8 years. The remaining three years can be served in any component of the Selected Reserves, including the IRR. The Army’s preference would be to have you serve in a "weekend warrior" status, such as the USAR or National Guard, but that choice is up to you. There are benefits to serving in a "weekend warrior" status, and many of those benefits can be reviewed here:
http://www.2xcitizen.usar.army.mil/soldierservices/guidance/
The above web link is a great place to start and get information about all forms of Reserve service.
You may want to serve in the IRR because you left active duty and you were not able to find a drilling Reserve/National Guard unit that met your needs. In effect, the IRR will act as a temporary holding area while you find a vacancy in a Reserve/Guard unit. Likewise, if you decided to leave active duty and go directly in the drilling Reserves, you may have served in a unit for several years and finally found you were maxed out in your ability to serve. Maybe the grade structure only authorized a Captain’s position and you have been promoted to Major. You will need to find a valid authorization in another unit for the grade you have (O-4) until you do find that vacancy, you may need to "park" in the IRR for a period of time.
You may have started off with service in a weekend warrior drilling Reserve unit and things were working out well. Maybe you have been with that unit for many years and advanced up the ranks in grade and responsibility. As you advanced in the ranks, you have found that the time you are investing is much more than just ""one weekend a month and two weeks a year". Maybe the time you are spending is dramatically reducing quality time with your family. It might also be the case that the demands of your civilian job have changed to the point that you have to make a choice between your full time employment and your service in the Reserves. The IRR bridges a very useful gap in that situation. You can transfer into the IRR from the drilling Reserves for as long as you feel is necessary and as long as you meet Army requirements/promotions. You may even decide at a later date that you want to go back into a "weekend warrior" status as family responsibilities stabilize and civilian job commitments become more manageable. Don’t throw away all of your service because you feel you have to choose an "either/or" scenario. IRR can be very useful in bridging this gap.
Finally, you may have made the decision up front (as I did) to serve
your Reserve career in the IRR. There are certain advantages and disadvantages
to doing this. As a rule, promotions in the IRR are slower than drilling
units. Essentially, you must wait a prescribed period of time before you
become eligible for your next promotion. These time period are as follows:
| 2LT-1LT | 2 |
| 1LT-CPT | 5 |
| CPT-MAJ | 7 |
| MAJ-LTC | 7 |
| LTC-COL | Announced by DA |
Table 1
You may also want to take a peek at this Powerpoint presentation:
http://www.2xcitizen.usar.army.mil/soldierservices/pb/officerprocess.ppt
It will; give some fairly helpful tips on how the Reserve promotion bards work and how to help ensure your greatest chances of success.
Another interesting myth appears to center around the concept that Nation Guard and drilling USAR soldiers will get promoted ahead of IRR soldiers. While it sounds good in theory, this is not necessarily the truth. As partial evidence of this, my own promotion to Major was accomplished with zero time spent in the drilling Guard or Reserves. It may be the case that I may not get promoted to LTC, but I will be at 18 years of service anyway, so it does not really matter at that point. As time marches on, and with all other things being equal, theoretically the drilling Reservist enjoys a decided advantage over the IRR soldier for several reasons.
First, consider the effect of voting a file from both sources. Things are not as clear cut as they might seem on the surface. When you consider the weekend warrior who has been drilling in a Guard or Reserve unit for a period of time, the OERS that exist in that person’s file do not necessarily help to promote the officer any faster than an IRR officer. Both files are considered at the same point in time. Keep in mind, there is a parallel promotion system based upon grade and unit vacancies for drilling reservists, but that promotion system is not really discussed here. In that system, drilling reservists have a decided advantage. The promotions I am referencing are those governed strictly by the promotion eligibility governed by table 1 above.
It might be convenient to make a comparison of two officers with a similar background. Consider two officers who spent eight years on active duty. Both officers resigned as their Active Duty Service Obligation (ADSO) completely expired. Both officers opted to serve in the Reserves. One officer spent his entire time in the IRR, while the other officer spent his entire time in drilling units. For sake of convenience, let’s say that four years transpired and both officers were up for promotion consideration for Major (O-4). Unit vacancy promotions for the drilling officer were not considered. If the officer who has been serving in drilling units for the past four years has not kept up with his educational requirements (Bachelor’s degree, Advanced course, CAS3, etc.), that officer may be a potential promotion risk. When you consider that this officer has had very little free time due to the demands of a family, full time day job, and a drilling Reserve job, there may not be enough time left in the day to complete some of the civilian and military educational requirements. Oddly enough, these requirements seem to weigh heavily in promotion board consideration.
Consider however the IRR officer who did not drill during the weekend, or two weeks a year. That officer more than likely only made his or her points by completing military educational requirements via correspondence. In that respect, the burden is slightly higher for the drilling reservist versus the IRR soldier. Many soldiers never even get to the point where their promotion packet gets board consideration, because they have not achieved a "fully qualified" status. The surest way to fail to achieve "fully qualified" status is failing to meet MEL and CEL requirements for the grade being considered for promotion. In all fairness however, the drilling Reservist is getting paid during the time they are performing drills and the IRR soldier is not. Nevertheless, both soldiers are ultimately competing for viability in making a "20 year letter", which awards Reserve retired pay for 20 years of service (active and Reserve, or Reserve only). I will mention more later on the Reserve retirement system and pay examples.
Service in the Reserves is designed to meet various military requirements in exchange for a modest pay for reduced services for the drilling Reservist. A retirement system is also put into place for this Reservist which is not at all like the active duty military retirement system. The active duty officer has to make it to 20 years of active service, which is sometimes difficult to do. This can often times be influenced by factors outside of the direct control of the officer, such as changes in national policy (the wall coming down), changes in end strength (RIFs), changes in Congressional policy(DOPMA), etc. In today’s environment, particularly with a "zero defect mentality", it is very difficult to make it to 20 years of service. Once the officer reaches 20 years of service, the officers retired pay is computed using one of three formulas, which are outlined here:
http://www.perscom.army.mil/tagd/retire/diemsinfopaper.htm
I will provide three possible "scenarios" of officers, all of whom would be eligible under the 50 percent at 20 year retirement plan. Please be sure to read the hyperlink above to fully understand the three plans in effect (50%, high three, and Redux).
The first scenario involves an officer from year Group 1983. This officer served five years on active duty and requested release from active duty at the 5 year point. This officer spent the entire remainder of his military career in the IRR. The officer was eligible for promotion six years after leaving active duty and was promoted to major. The officer was then eligible for promotion again 12.5 years after leaving active duty, but was not promoted. The officer was considered a second time for LTC, but was twice non-select. This officer was selectively continued to 20 years of Reserve service and was mandatory retired at 20 years (officer obtained his 20 year letter). Let’s see how the points are computed:
For active duty service: Each day counts as one point. In a standard year, this will be 365 points. Leap years are computed at 366 points. Since this officer served exactly five years, it will be as follows:
4 x 365 + 366 = 1826 points
For Reserve service: Let’s assume that this officer only put forth minimum effort each year. This legally means that in order to receive credit for a good year each year, the officer must have made 50 points each year. Since the officer served 15 years in this capacity, this would be as follows:
15 x 50 = 750 points
When the officer goes to ARPERCEN to have a 20 year letter computed, ARPERCEN acknowledges the above figures and awards a "20 year letter". This is equivalent to a future IOU for the retirement system. This officer will have to wait until they are age 60 to collect retirement. Let’s assume that the officer graduated from school in 1983 at the age of 22. He is 42 years old upon retirement. They will need to wait another 18 years to draw retirement benefits. A year prior to age 60, the "Gray area retiree" files the paperwork to draw retired pay and benefits from the Reserves. Here is the existing formula that will be used and a few assumptions that will also be used.
Today, a Major on active duty makes $4,986.60 at 20 years of service. Eighteen years from now we will assume that a Major on active duty will be making $7264.53. This uses standard future value formulas (PV=FV/(1+g)18) The rate of growth (g) is the yearly CPI, which is assumed to be 2%. Here’s how the pay is computed:
50% of 7264.53 = $3,632.27
Equivalent years factor = (1826 + 750)/360= 2576/360 = 7.15 equivalent years.
Final retirement pay = 7.15/20 x 3632.27 = $1,299.54 per month at age 60
Let’s look at a second example.
The second scenario involves an officer from year Group 1983 as well. This officer served eight years on active duty and requested release from active duty at the end of the ADSO(8 years of service). This officer spent the entire remainder of his military career in the IRR. The officer was eligible for promotion 4 years after leaving active duty and was promoted to major. The officer was then eligible for promotion again 11 years after leaving active duty, and was promoted to LTC. The officer attained 20 years of Reserve service and opted for "gray area" retiree status at 20 years of service (officer obtained his 20 year letter). Let’s see how the points are computed:
For active duty service: Each day counts as one point. In a standard year, this will be 365 points. Leap years are computed at 366 points. Since this officer served exactly eight years, it will be as follows:
6 x 365 + 2 x366 = 2922 points
For Reserve service: Let’s assume that this officer put forth a variable effort each year. Some years the officer met the mandatory minimum points to make a good year, and other years the officer achieved the maximum within that given year. Since the officer served 12 years in this capacity, this would be as follows:
50 +60 +50 +60 +50 +60 +50 +75 + 50+ 90 + 50 +90= 735 points **
**The legal maximum was raised by Congress twice and is currently capped at 90 points.
When the officer goes to ARPERCEN to have a 20 year letter computed, ARPERCEN acknowledges the above figures and awards a "20 year letter". This is equivalent to a future IOU for the retirement system. This officer will have to wait until they are age 60 to collect retirement. Let’s assume that the officer graduated from school in 1983 at the age of 22. He is 42 years old upon retirement. He will need to wait another 18 years to draw retirement benefits. A year prior to age 60, the "Gray area retiree" files the paperwork to draw retired pay and benefits from the Reserves. Here is the existing formula that will be used and a few assumptions that will also be used.
Today, a Lieutenant Colonel on active duty makes $5,790.30 at 20 years of service. Eighteen years from now we will assume that an LTC on active duty will be making $8,269.97. This uses standard future value formulas (PV=FV/(1+g)18) The rate of growth (g) is the yearly CPI, which is assumed to be 2%. Here’s how the pay is computed:
50% of 8269.97 = $4,134.99
Equivalent years factor = (2922 + 735)/360= 2576/360 = 10.16 equivalent years.
Final retirement pay = 10.16/20 x 4,134.99 = $2,100.23 per month at age 60.
The final scenario is for me J
The final scenario involves me. I served ten years two months, and 8 days on active duty. I was released with no commitments. I have spent all of my time since leaving active duty in the IRR. Unfortunately, I did not make any points on my first year after leaving active duty L . I have made or exceeded the minimum every year since. My RYE anniversary date is August 2nd of each year. This year I will have a total of 4225 points. My intent is to get promoted in the upcoming Reserve retirement board that is convening on September of 2001. Making an assumption for now that I get promoted, I intend to stay until the Army throws me out. Let’s assume that I do not get promoted to COL. This would happen in approximately 7.5 years. I will get re-boarded for COL as many times as possible until I meet mandatory separation dates prescribed by law. I will assume that I stay in the IRR until 28 years of service, whereby I request to have a "20 year letter" confirmed by ARPERCEN. ARPERCEN validates my 20 year letter, and I enter into gray area retiree status. Let’s see how the points are computed:
For active duty service: Each day counts as one point. In a standard year, this will be 365 points. Leap years are computed at 366 points. I served ten years, two months, and eight days. This yields:
3720 points
For Reserve service: Each year I have met variable quantities of points. My points have tracked as follows:
15 +60 +60 +55 +75 +75 +75 +90= 505 points *
**The 15 points do not count towards making a "good year", but once 20 "good years" are made, they are computed for retirement purposes. We will also assume the following number of future points earned:
90 + 90 + 90 + 90 + 90 + 90 + 90 + 90 = 720 points
When I go to ARPERCEN to have a 20 year letter computed, ARPERCEN acknowledges the above figures and awards a "20 year letter". This is equivalent to a future IOU for the retirement system. I will have to wait until I am 60 to collect retirement. I graduated from school in 1983 at the age of 22. I will be 51 years old upon retirement. I will need to wait another 9 years to draw retirement benefits. A year prior to age 60, I file the paperwork to draw retired pay and benefits from the Reserves. Here is the existing formula that will be used and a few assumptions that will also be used.
Today, a Lieutenant Colonel on active duty makes $5,964.6 at 28 years of service. Eight years from now we will assume that an LTC on active duty will be making $6,988.48. This uses standard future value formulas (PV=FV/(1+g)8) The rate of growth (g) is the yearly CPI, which is assumed to be 2%. Here’s how the pay is computed:
70% of 6988.48 = $4891.94 (28 years of service – not 20)
Equivalent years factor = (3720 + 505 + 720)/360= 4945/360 = 13.736 equivalent years.
Final retirement pay = 13.736/28 x 4,891.94 = $2,399.85 per month at age 60.
You can generally figure out a few planning assumptions on how to maximize the final retirement pay based upon the examples above. Obviously, more time spent on active duty increases your total number of points, which in turn will increase your equivalent years factor. The longer you stay in an IRR status beyond the "20 year letter" point, will better your final pay. Lastly, the more promotions you make, the higher the final base pay that will be used for a starting point for computations. Keep in mind some other variables as well. The actual rate of growth of active duty salaries may be more or less than 2 percent a year. Also, the rules may change again regarding the maximum number of points that are allowed to be kept within a given year. There have even been a few rumors about eliminating the "wait until age 60 to draw your pay" rule. The multipliers and formulas cited above would still be used, but payments would not be deferred to age 60, rather they would start as soon as you were retirement eligible. These are only speculative rumors, so don’t make any planning assumption based upon it.
Many folks wonder how it is possible to earn points each year. There are several ways of doing this, and it is pretty well spelled out here:
http://www.2xcitizen.usar.army.mil/soldierservices/retirement/earningpoints.asp
I focus my energies in two areas. They are DA Form 1380 recognized training sessions, and correspondence courses. I make the assumption that I will not be doing any form of "weekend warrior" training or drills. So far, I have not been recalled to active duty. The days that I go to take a flight physical once a year don’t count (as far as I know). When I worked at the naval Air System’s Command, I had to take a variety of military/DoD sponsored training courses. All of these were covered under DA Form 1380. Depending upon the type of course, a maximum of 2 points were earned each day of attendance. I made sure that every time I attended one of these courses I brought a completed DA Form 1380 for the instructor to sign. Most of the instructors were military. If your instructor was not military, it was usually a good idea to get a military faculty member in the department to initial the DA 1380. Those were easy points earned, since I had to attend the training anyway. Most of my points however, were earned via correspondence.
Correspondence courses are a great way for you to maintain your familiarity with military subjects and earn retirement points. You earn one retirement point for each 3 credit hours completed in a military correspondence course. Enrollment nowadays can be done online here at this web site:
http://www.atsc.army.mil/accp/aipd.htm
Be sure to click on the big blue button that says, "click here to begin". You will need to register for the Army Correspondence Course Program (ACCP). Registration is easy and is done online. Once you are registered, you can browse the correspondence course catalog and choose the subcourse or course you want to take. Unfortunately, because somebody changed the rules at the ACCP, you can only sign up for one course or subcourse at a time. In short, do not sign up for subcourses. Only register for a course. Another rule that is even more ridiculous deals with sending of course materials. In the past, when you signed up for a course, you would receive the entire course materials in one big bundle. I would normally get this finished in 2-4 weeks and then get the materials graded online. Just about all of the correspondence courses can be graded online and you get instant feedback. I lobbed the entire 30 tests on the system within one moth after my RYE date had passed (this is the anniversary date that is used to mark each "good year" of service). A few days later, I would order another course and get all of those materials done within 2 months. I would then have the course materials sitting in my basement waiting for August 2nd (My RYE date) to arrive. I would then lob all my course materials into the system and start the process all over again. This way, I could always be one year ahead of the game. Unfortunately, the same bean counter who was part of the "good idea club" to restrict enrollment to only one course, also restricted mailings of course materials out to one at a time.
The reason that was given for doing this was to save money. That is totally absurd when you consider that the cost to mail/ship a bundle of course books at 30 pounds is almost 2.5 times as much as the cost to mail 30 books separately at one pound each. I tried to explain this all to the representatives at ACCP in "see spot run" terms, but they were undeterred. The only real difference that it makes is that you cannot effectively "bank" any points for future years. Also, you cannot waste any time completing these course books when they come in. Since they will not send any more books until you finish the test for the book you have, procrastination is your enemy. I am hoping that somebody that has a clue will reverse this obviously misguided policy. This policy is most detrimental to the Reservists that are most dependent upon this system.
There is possibly a faster method of obtaining points, which is to take online correspondence courses. They can be found here:
http://www.atsc.army.mil/accp/electronic.htm
Each month, additional courses are added to the list. All materials (including the exams) are obtained online. Most of the course materials can be downloaded in advance, along with the test. Once you are ready to have the test graded, you have to officially enroll in the course.
Another source of points are correspondence courses from the other services. They can be obtained here:
Additionally, you will find that some correspondence courses are remotely managed away from the ACCP. A good example of this is the Command and General Staff College or CAS3. CGSC is a pre-requisite for promotion to LTC and COL. CAS3 used to be a prerequisite for promotion to major (it may not be now). Amazingly, many Reserve officers fail to complete this requirement. You have up to four years to complete CGSC, and enough points can be made each year to get "four good years" just from CGSC alone. Enrollment can be made from here:
If you are a loggie, don’t forget to check out the Associate LEDC course. It has almost as many points as CGSC. The only downside is that most of the courses that are administered from FT Lee (Army Logistics management College) require that you have tests administered by a Test Control officer (TCO). Technically, this can be done at any Army education center. Of course, if you are four hours from an Army education center, this is impractical. The ALMC recognized this impracticality and has given you two alternatives. One alternative is to have your boss/employer administer the test, the other is to use a librarian. Of course, in either instance, you have to explain how the Army cannot trust that you will comply with the test instructions and time limits and you will require the assistance of the local librarian or your boss to uphold your personal honor. I personally find the requirement insulting and demeaning, but my opinions in this area do not count for much. If it bothers you, don’t sign up for courses from ALMC. They may change this misguided policy in the future.
So, you may be asking at this point, what benefits will I accrue if I make it to a point of getting a "20 year letter". In general, you will receive retirement pay at age 60, generally in conformance with the examples cited above. Your mileage will vary, and check your local listings for the straight poop. Additional benefits are the same as any other retiree, including health (space available), commissary, MWR, MAC flights, etc. For a detailed listing of these benefits look here:
http://www.2xcitizen.usar.army.mil/soldierservices/retirement/grayarea.asp
This document will be updated periodically to reflect additional information as it becomes available, or correct mistakes made in the information cited above.
I hope you find it useful.
Paul Werner
MAJ, USAR (IRR)