Do you have to be 20 years active duty, full time in order to get full retirement (U.S. Army)?

Question

Also, if I have completed my 20 years at 40 years of age, can I start drawing (military) retirement at that age?

Answer 1

No you can't draw pension until your 55 the way it is right now.

Answer 2

You can start drawing pension however to receive full pension i believe you have to do 30 years!

Answer 3

20 years of day for day AD gets you 50% of your basic pay and Tricare. You can start drawing your retirement pay reguardless of your age.

Answer 4

Yes, 20 years is the needed time frame for full benefits (unless your retired early from medical reasons of course).

I have 14 years of service as of right now and will be 37 when I am retired drawing my pension. This is for Active duty only though, Reserve and National Guard is different and you will need to be 65 or whatever the age is now for retirement.

Answer 5

At 20 years you receive 50% of your base pay only

Each additional year you serve you earn an additional 2 1/2%

So at 30 years you would be able to draw 75% of your base pay.

There are limitations by rank on how long you can serve. For instance for an E-8 you can only serve 26 years, for a E-9 you can only serve 30 years, however Flag E-9s can get waivers and serve longer.

You have to serve active duty to draw retirement right away.

In the reserves you have to wait till your 60 but if you were deployed for OIF / OEF after 2001 you can subtract how many month you were deployed and collect retirement earlier.

Check out this link for more info.

http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/generalpa...