You are not eligible to retire from the reserves until you receive a “Notice of Eligibility for Retiree Pay at Age 60” letter. This is known as the “20 Year Charter”. You will receive this letter after your 20th good year; approximately 90 to 120 days after the end date of your retirement year.

Along with this letter, you will also receive a “Reserve Component Survivor Benefit Plan (RC-SBP)”. Someone in your unit, or a career counselor, will work with you at this point. You and your spouse will complete the RC-SBP and send it to your unit. Your unit will send it to the office that will keep your records after you retire. For the military, this would be HRC.

You will have three main options.

You will also have three options. The first is to continue your reserve status. The second is to transfer to the retiree reserve. The third is to choose to be dropped from reserves. There is also a fourth option, more on that later.

You can continue with your reservation status. If you are a drill reservist, you can continue to drill and follow your troop program unit plan. If you are in the Individual Ready Reserves (IRR), you can continue to meet your IRR requirements. If you are in reserve reserves, you can continue drilling without receiving payment.

This option allows you to earn grade/service credit time for the duration of your available reserve time. It also allows you to continue accumulating retirement points. The more retirement points you have, the larger your paycheck will be. Ideally, you’ll want to stay in this status until you reach paid retirement eligibility.

As a ready reservist, you are a mobilization asset.

If you continue to remain in ready reserve status, you are still required to earn 50 retirement/reserve points each retirement year. If you fall below that requirement, you will be subject to transfer to withdrawn reserves.

The second option you have is to transfer to the withdrawn reserves. In this case, you will send a retirement package. It will be transferred to the retired reserves once I receive your withdrawal orders. Once in the retired reserves, you will be a retired “gray area”. You’ll receive a retired reserve ID card and have most of the benefits you had as a reservist at the ready.

This option allows you to earn “time in grade/service” credit for the time you are retired in a gray area. It also keeps you as a “mobilization asset”.

The third option you have is to opt for the download of the reservations. This option removes it as a mobilization asset. However, this option also briefly changes your retirement pay. If you elect to leave, your retirement pay/rate will be the rate in effect for the retirement year in which you took leave. This means that the value of your future retirement pension decreases each year before you start receiving it.

The choice you make, between transferring to withdrawn reserves or downloading, will be final.

Qualitative Retention Program:

Now, let’s say you stay in the Troop Program Unit (TPU)/Selected Reserves (SELRES). What happens next? If you are an Army Reserve or Army National Guard, you end up subject to the Qualitative Retention Program. The military will review your record once every two years. They will determine if you are among the best chosen to continue drilling, or if you should be transferred to another state.

Once your record is flagged for consideration, they will send you an information packet through their chain of command. One of the items in that pack will give you two options. If the board removes you from your drill status, where do you want to transfer to? Do you want to go to the IRR, or to the retiree reserve?

If you choose to transfer to the TIR, you can continue to accumulate points. You will also have the opportunity to do AT/ADT or volunteer for other training opportunities. If you have other priorities, you can choose to transfer to retired reserves.

You’ll also get tips on checking your records to make sure they’re complete. They will also give you and your commander an opportunity to make statements.

The fourth option, pending unit policy.

Depending on your unit (Army Reserves), or if you are in the National Guard (Army), you have another option after receiving your 20-year letter. You can request the transfer to the IRR.

Even if you’re not close to receiving your 20-year letter, you should carefully consider the above options.

Final years of reserves required for retirement.

If you reached 20 qualifying years for retirement before October 5, 1994, the last 8 qualifying years must be reserve years. If you had 20 years of qualifying for retirement from October 5, 1994 through April 24, 2005, the last 6 qualifying years must be reserve years.

If you reached 20 qualifying years for retirement after April 24, 2005, you do not have a minimum reserve requirement at the end.