Reference

Glossary

Open the VA decoder ring with practical next steps →

The acronyms that carry the most weight, defined once. Every one of these appears somewhere in the checklist attached to a date, a form, or a window that closes — the definition lives here so the chapter does not have to stop and give it.

150 terms22 lettersSorted A–Z. Every entry has its own link.

6 terms

ADSCActive Duty Service Commitment: A period the member agrees to remain on active duty in exchange for a benefit — training, a bonus, an education programme, or the transfer of education benefits. Multiple commitments run CONCURRENTLY, not consecutively: the separation date is governed by whichever ends last, and a new commitment shorter than one already running costs no additional time at all.
ADSOActive Duty Service Obligation: The initial obligation incurred at commissioning or accession, its length set by the accession source — academy, scholarship, officer training, or enlistment. Functionally the same mechanism as an active duty service commitment and subject to the same concurrency rule; the two terms are used differently across services.
Agency match: Government contributions to a member's Thrift Savings Plan account under the Blended Retirement System, consisting of an automatic contribution paid regardless of whether the member contributes, plus matching on member contributions up to a capped percentage. Matching is calculated per pay period, not annually, which is the detail that costs people money.
Allocation: The assignment of transferred months to specific dependents. A dependent given zero months while the member is still serving cannot be added later — only the months already allocated to someone can be moved between existing recipients after separation. Allocating one month to every eligible dependent preserves flexibility that allocating zero destroys.
Annual additions limit: A separate and higher ceiling covering all contributions to the account from all sources — member, agency, and contributions from tax-excluded combat zone pay. It is the limit that governs when a member deployed to a combat zone contributes heavily, a case where the ordinary elective deferral limit is not the binding constraint.
Arrears of pay: Retired pay earned but unpaid at the time of a retiree's death, paid to a separately designated beneficiary. It is distinct from the survivor annuity and requires its own designation, which is commonly left unnamed and then paid according to a statutory order of precedence.

11 terms

BAHBasic Allowance for Housing: A non-taxable allowance for housing costs, set by duty location, pay grade, and whether the member has dependents. It is a rate, not a reimbursement: it does not change with actual rent, and a member who spends less keeps the difference. The rate follows the duty station rather than where the member chooses to live.
BASBasic Allowance for Subsistence: A non-taxable allowance for the member's own meals, paid at a flat rate that varies by officer or enlisted status rather than by grade or location. It covers the member only and makes no provision for dependents, which is a common surprise when a family budget is built from gross pay.
BASDBasic Active Service Date: The date from which ACTIVE duty service is counted, adjusted for any period that is not creditable as active service. For a member with continuous active duty and no prior reserve time it often coincides with the pay entry base date; for anyone else it does not. The distinction matters because the two dates govern different things — the pay entry base date drives longevity pay steps, while active service drives active-duty retirement eligibility. A member with substantial prior reserve service can hold a pay entry base date well ahead of their active service date and still be years away from the twenty-year gate.
Base amount: The portion of retired pay the survivor annuity is computed from, elected at retirement between a statutory minimum and full retired pay. Both the premium and the annuity scale with it. It is the lever for a partial election, and once elected it can generally only be changed within narrow windows.
Basic pay: The taxable salary component, set by a table indexed on pay grade and years of service. It is the only element of military compensation that counts toward retired pay, toward the Thrift Savings Plan contribution base, and toward Social Security earnings. Every allowance sits outside it. This single fact explains why two members with similar take-home pay can retire on very different pensions.
BCMRBoard for Correction of Military Records: The service-level body with authority to correct errors and remove injustices from a military record, including discharge characterisations, dates, and decorations. Applications generally carry a filing deadline measured from discovery of the error, which may be waived in the interest of justice. Evidence wins these cases; recollection does not.
BDDBenefits Delivery at Discharge: A VA program that lets you file a disability claim between 180 and 90 days before separation, so a decision can arrive close to your discharge date.
Beneficiary designation: The named recipient recorded on an account or policy. A valid designation overrides the will for that asset — life insurance, thrift savings, and emergency data forms pay the named person regardless of what a later will says. The most common estate failure in military families is a designation naming someone from a previous chapter of life.
Bilateral factor: An extra 10% added under 38 CFR 4.26 when disabilities affect both arms, both legs, or paired skeletal muscles. It is applied to the paired subtotal before combining with anything else, and before rounding.
Bonus recoupment: The recovery of the unearned portion of a bonus when a member does not complete the service the bonus was paid for. Recoupment is generally prorated against the unserved months and can be pursued as a debt after separation. A bonus is therefore best understood as payment for a period of service rather than as money already earned on receipt.
BRSBlended Retirement System: The retirement system that is mandatory for members with a DIEMS date on or after 1 January 2018. It pays a 2.0% per year multiplier and adds TSP automatic and matching contributions plus continuation pay.

20 terms

C&P ExamCompensation and Pension Examination: An examination used to develop evidence for a claim, not a treatment visit or a final rating decision. Describe current symptoms, typical functioning and flare-ups accurately, including frequency, duration and daily impact. Do not exaggerate or minimize.
Career Status BonusCSB: The mid-career payment that accompanied election of the reduced legacy retirement option. It is the reason a retiree may find their pension lower than a peer with identical service, and the election was irrevocable.
Catastrophic cap: The annual ceiling on a family's out-of-pocket costs for covered services, after which the plan pays the full allowable amount for the rest of the year. It bounds the worst case, which is the number that matters when comparing plans. Point-of- service charges and non-covered services fall outside it.
Catch-up contributions: Additional contributions permitted to participants at or above a threshold age, above the ordinary elective deferral limit. The mechanics have changed more than once — including how they are elected and, for higher earners, whether they must be made as Roth — so the current rule should be read from the plan rather than recalled.
Character of service: The characterisation of a discharge — honourable, general under honourable conditions, other than honourable, and the punitive discharges. It governs eligibility for most Department of Veterans Affairs benefits. A characterisation below honourable does not automatically bar all benefits: the department makes its own character-of-discharge determination for benefit purposes, which is a separate process from a discharge upgrade.
CHCBPContinued Health Care Benefit Program: A premium-based bridge plan available for a limited period after military coverage ends, functionally similar to civilian continuation coverage. It must be elected within a short window after separation, and the premium is substantial because it is unsubsidised. It is the fallback when transitional coverage does not apply.
CLEPCollege-Level Examination Program: Standardised examinations that grant college credit for existing knowledge, funded for service members. Together with similar subject examinations they can eliminate a substantial share of a degree's general education requirements without consuming education benefit entitlement.
COECertificate of Eligibility: The document confirming entitlement to an education benefit, including the tier percentage and months remaining. Schools generally require it before certifying enrolment. It is also the first place a member will see a tier percentage that does not match what they expected, which is worth checking before committing to a programme.
COLACost-of-Living Adjustment: The annual adjustment applied to retired pay. Under 10 U.S.C. 1401a it follows the CPI-W, not the CPI-U quoted in the news and not the CPI-E. The same adjustment carries through to the SBP annuity.
COLA (overseas)Cost of Living Allowance, overseas: A non-taxable allowance offsetting higher non-housing costs at an overseas location, adjusted for exchange rate movement and reviewed frequently. It is unrelated to the annual retired pay cost-of-living adjustment despite sharing an acronym, and it stops when the assignment ends.
Combined rating: Your overall VA percentage. It is not the sum of your individual ratings. Under 38 CFR 4.25 each rating applies to the ability that remains after the previous one, so 50, 30 and 20 combine to 70, not 100.
Concurrent obligation: The rule that service commitments run at the same time rather than end to end. A four-year commitment incurred today alongside an existing commitment with six years remaining extends nothing, because the existing one already runs past it. Adding commitment lengths together is the single most common error in career planning, and it always overstates the cost of accepting an opportunity.
Continuation pay: A mid-career cash payment under the Blended Retirement System, offered in a window around the middle of a career in exchange for an additional service obligation. The multiplier is set by each service and varies year to year, so the amount is not a fixed property of the system. Taking it incurs a commitment that must be counted alongside any other obligation the member carries.
COOLCredentialing Opportunities On-Line: Service catalogues mapping military occupational specialties to civilian certifications and licences, including which credentials a member's experience already satisfies in part. Useful well before transition, because some certifications require documented experience hours that are far easier to accumulate while still serving.
CPI-WConsumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers: The index that governs the military retired pay cost-of-living adjustment. It is a different index from the CPI-U, which most inflation reporting uses, and from the experimental CPI-E. Using the wrong one compounds across a long projection.
CRDPConcurrent Retirement and Disability Pay: Restores retired pay that was waived because of VA compensation, for 20-year retirees with a VA rating of 50% or more. It is automatic and it is taxable. You cannot receive it at the same time as CRSC.
Credentialing assistanceCA: Service funding for civilian professional certifications and licences rather than academic credit, drawn in most services from the same annual pool as tuition assistance. It is the more direct route to an employable credential for a member who does not need a further degree.
Creditable service: The computed period of service that counts toward retirement eligibility and the retired pay multiplier. It is derived from the pay entry base date adjusted for lost time and breaks in service, and it is frequently not the figure a member would arrive at by counting years. It should be obtained in writing rather than assumed.
CRSCCombat-Related Special Compensation: Restores waived retired pay attributable to combat-related conditions at a rating of 10% or more. It requires an application to your service, and it is not taxable. A smaller CRSC payment can beat a larger CRDP payment after tax.
CZTECombat Zone Tax Exclusion: The exclusion of military pay from federal income tax for service in a designated combat zone. Enlisted pay is excluded without limit; officer exclusion is capped at a monthly ceiling tied to the highest enlisted basic pay plus imminent danger pay. Any part of a month served in the zone generally qualifies the whole month. Excluded pay still counts for Thrift Savings Plan contributions and creates tax-free balances that must be tracked.

11 terms

DBQDisability Benefits Questionnaire: Disability Benefits Questionnaire: a structured clinical report used as evidence. Public availability and examiner qualifications vary. It does not guarantee service connection or a rating, and VA may request another examination.
DD 93Record of Emergency Data: The form recording who is notified in an emergency and who receives death gratuity and unpaid pay. It is not a will and it does not control life insurance, but for what it does govern it prevails over a will. It goes stale after every marriage, divorce, birth, and death in a family, and reviewing it is a five-minute task with an irreversible failure mode.
DD-214Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty: The single most important document a member leaves service with. It establishes dates of service, character of discharge, decorations, and separation codes, and is the evidence for Department of Veterans Affairs claims, retirement pay, employment preference, and burial benefits. Errors are far easier to correct before signature than after, and correction afterwards runs through a records board.
Deductible: The amount a beneficiary pays for covered services in a plan year before the plan begins paying its share. It applies to the preferred-provider option and not to the managed-care option's ordinary network care, which is part of why the two compare so differently in a light year against a heavy one. It resets annually and, in this benefit, counts toward the catastrophic cap.
DEERSDefense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System: The database of record for benefit eligibility for members and dependents. A dependent not correctly recorded in it is not covered, regardless of the family's actual composition. Marriage, birth, adoption, divorce and a child's ageing out all require action, and the failure mode is a denied claim rather than a warning.
Delimiting date: The expiry date of an education benefit. For members whose last discharge was on or after 1 January 2013, the Post-9/11 benefit does not expire. For earlier discharges a fifteen-year clock applies, and separate rules govern the older Montgomery benefit. Which regime applies turns on the discharge date, not on when study begins.
DFASDefense Finance and Accounting Service: The agency that pays military members and retirees and maintains retired pay accounts. Retired pay disputes, survivor plan premiums, allotments, and tax withholding for retirees all run through it, and a retiree's account there is separate from any active-duty account they held.
DICDependency and Indemnity Compensation: A monthly VA payment to the survivor of a member whose death was service connected, including some cases of total disability before death. Its interaction with the SBP annuity has changed under recent legislation, so confirm the current rule with DFAS.
DIEMSDate of Initial Entry to Military Service: The date that determines which retirement system applies to you. It is fixed at first entry and cannot be changed by later breaks in service.
DLADislocation Allowance: A payment offsetting the incidental costs of relocating a household on a permanent change of station, paid at a rate set by grade and dependency status. It is intended to cover what a move costs beyond the shipment of goods and travel itself, and it is generally payable once per move.
DRBDischarge Review Board: The body reviewing the characterisation and reason for a discharge, within a limited period after separation and excluding discharges by general court-martial. Distinct from the records correction board, which has broader authority and a different standard.

3 terms

Early withdrawal penalty: An additional tax on distributions taken before a threshold age, applying on top of ordinary income tax. Several exceptions exist, and one matters here specifically: separation from service in or after the year the member reaches a qualifying age can exempt distributions from that employer's plan. The exceptions are narrow and worth confirming rather than assuming.
Effective date: The date assigned to an award under the applicable rules. It can differ from the payment start. Filing history, entitlement facts, separation timing and continuous pursuit may matter; an Intent to File does not guarantee the final date.
Elective deferral limit: The annual statutory ceiling on employee contributions to a defined-contribution plan, set by the Internal Revenue Service and adjusted most years. It applies across all such plans a person holds in the same year, so a member with civilian employment in the same tax year shares one limit between both jobs.

6 terms

FDCFully Developed Claim: A Department of Veterans Affairs claim process, used when the claimant submits all private evidence with the claim rather than asking the department to gather it. The department still obtains federal records and still orders any examination it needs, so choosing this lane does not waive a duty to assist — it removes the wait for records the claimant already holds. A claim filed this way that turns out to need more development is moved to the standard lane rather than denied.
FEDVIPFederal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program: The dental and vision programme available to retirees and their families, replacing the active-duty family dental plan at retirement. Enrolment is not automatic and generally must occur within a window after retirement or during an open season, which is a gap many retirees discover at a dental appointment.
Free window: The period during which incurring a new service commitment costs no additional obligated time, because an existing commitment already extends beyond the new one. It closes EARLIER than the shielding commitment ends — specifically, by the length of the new commitment — which is counter-intuitive and is why members routinely discover the window has shut while believing they had years left.
Front-loading trap: The loss of matching contributions caused by reaching the annual elective deferral limit before the final pay period of the year. Because matching is computed per pay period, a member who contributes nothing in December because they are already at the limit receives no match in December, and the missed match cannot be recovered. Spreading contributions evenly across the year avoids it.
FSAFamily Separation Allowance: A monthly payment to a member with dependents who is involuntarily separated from them for longer than a qualifying period. It compensates for the added costs of running a household at a distance and is not paid for voluntary separation, such as choosing an unaccompanied tour when an accompanied one was available.
FSGLIFamily Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance: Coverage on a spouse and dependent children under the group life programme, premium-charged for the spouse and free for children. Spouse coverage likewise ends at separation and has its own limited conversion route.

4 terms

G Fund: The government securities fund, the only Thrift Savings Plan fund that cannot lose nominal value. Its distinguishing property is that it pays a long-term rate on a short-term instrument, which no retail investor can buy. Its risk is not volatility but inflation: a balance held here for decades can lose purchasing power while never falling in dollar terms.
Gray area retiree: A reserve component member who has qualified for retirement but has not yet reached the age at which retired pay begins, ordinarily sixty and reducible by qualifying active service. During these years the member holds retiree status without retired pay, and healthcare must be purchased separately.
Group A: The cost group for beneficiaries whose sponsor entered service before 1 January 2018. It carries materially lower enrolment fees than the later group, and — for the preferred-provider option — an inpatient cost share billed per DAY rather than per admission, which reverses the advantage in a long hospital stay.
Group B: The cost group for beneficiaries whose sponsor entered service on or after 1 January 2018. Enrolment fees are substantially higher than the earlier group, while some inpatient cost shares are structured more favourably. Which group applies is fixed by the sponsor's initial entry date and cannot be elected.

3 terms

High-3: The average of the highest 36 months of basic pay, used to compute retired pay. Only basic pay counts. Allowances such as BAH and BAS do not.
HLRHigher-Level Review: An appeal lane where a more senior reviewer looks at the same evidence with fresh eyes. No new evidence is allowed. Useful when the error was in how the evidence was read rather than in what was submitted.
HYTHigh Year of Tenure: The maximum time in service permitted at a given enlisted grade, forcing separation or retirement if the member is not promoted beyond it. Limits are set by each service and have been adjusted repeatedly. It is the constraint that can make twenty years unreachable for a member who is otherwise performing well.

6 terms

Imminent danger payIDP / HFP: A flat monthly payment for service in a designated area of danger or exposure to hostile fire, prorated by days present in the qualifying area. Distinct from the combat zone tax exclusion, though the two frequently apply to the same assignment and are often confused.
Initial enrollment period: The seven-month window around a person's sixty-fifth birthday during which Medicare enrolment carries no penalty, running from three months before the month of the birthday to three months after. Enrolling in the earlier part of the window avoids a gap between coverage starting and other coverage ending.
Intent to File: A notice that may establish an earlier potential filing date if the complete claim follows within one year. Eligible online applications can create one automatically. Confirm the recorded date and benefit; it is not a guaranteed effective date or a substitute for a decision-review filing.
Involuntary separation payISP: A payment to a member involuntarily separated with a qualifying period of service and characterisation, at full or half rate depending on the circumstances of separation. It is subject to recoupment against later retired pay or Department of Veterans Affairs compensation, so it is better understood as an advance than as a windfall.
IRMAAIncome-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount: A surcharge on Medicare Part B and Part D premiums for higher incomes, based on your tax return from two years earlier. It is a cliff rather than a slope, so one dollar over a threshold costs the whole tier.
IRRIndividual Ready Reserve: A manpower pool of members who have left active service but retain a remaining military service obligation. Members do not drill or draw pay but remain subject to recall, and must keep contact information current. Time in the pool generally does not earn retirement points absent qualifying activity.

1 term

JSTJoint Services Transcript: An official transcript translating military training and occupational experience into recommended college credit. Errors and omissions are common, and correcting them is markedly easier while still serving. Institutions vary widely in how much of the recommended credit they accept.

6 terms

Leave sell-back: The sale of accrued leave for a cash payment, limited to a career maximum number of days. Sold leave is paid at basic pay only — no housing or subsistence allowance attaches — so a day sold is worth materially less than a day taken as terminal leave, during which the member draws full pay and allowances.
LESLeave and Earnings Statement: The monthly statement of pay, allowances, deductions, allotments, leave balance and thrift savings contributions. It is the primary evidence for almost every pay dispute, and it is not retained indefinitely by any system the member keeps access to after separation. Downloading and storing them is the cheapest records insurance available.
Lifecycle fundsL Funds: Target-date funds that hold a mix of the underlying Thrift Savings Plan funds and shift progressively toward conservative holdings as the target date approaches. Chosen by intended withdrawal date rather than by separation date — a member retiring at forty who will not draw the account until much later has a target date decades beyond their retirement.
LODLine of Duty determination: The formal finding that an injury, illness, or death occurred in the line of duty. It governs entitlement to care and pay for reserve component members in particular, and it is a foundational document for a later disability claim. A determination not completed at the time is difficult to reconstruct years afterward.
Longevity step: A scheduled increase in basic pay that occurs on reaching a time-in-service boundary within the same grade, independent of any promotion. The boundaries are not evenly spaced — they fall at two, three, four years and then generally every two years, thinning out at the top of the table. A flat stretch in a pay projection between steps is the table behaving correctly, not an error.
Lump-sum election: An election available at retirement under the Blended Retirement System to take a portion of retired pay as a discounted lump sum, with monthly retired pay reduced until full Social Security retirement age. The discount rate applied has historically made the lump sum worth considerably less than the payments given up, and the election is irrevocable.

7 terms

Medicare Part A: Hospital insurance under Medicare, premium-free for most people based on their own or a spouse's earnings record. Entitlement to it is what makes a military retiree eligible for TRICARE For Life, and it is generally the trigger that ends other TRICARE plan enrolment.
Medicare Part B: Medical insurance under Medicare, carrying a monthly premium. Enrolling late without qualifying coverage produces a premium penalty that applies for life and rises with the length of the delay. Because TRICARE For Life requires Part B, a retiree who declines it loses the secondary coverage as well — the two failures compound.
MGIBMontgomery GI Bill, Chapter 30: The predecessor education benefit, funded by a member's own payroll contributions early in service and paying a flat monthly stipend to the student rather than tuition to the school. A member may hold entitlement to both this and the Post-9/11 benefit but must generally elect irrevocably between them.
MHAMonthly Housing Allowance: The housing payment under the Post-9/11 benefit, based on the location of the school rather than the student's residence, and generally scaled by rate of pursuit. It is not paid at all while the student is on active duty, and is paid at half the national average for students studying exclusively online. It is typically the largest single component of the benefit.
MSOMilitary Service Obligation: The total statutory obligation incurred on first entering military service, typically eight years, of which only part is served on active duty. The remainder is served in a reserve component or the Individual Ready Reserve. A member who leaves active duty before the obligation expires remains liable for the balance, which is a recurring surprise.
Multiplier: The percentage applied to the retired pay base, computed as a per-year rate times years of creditable service. The rate is two and a half percent per year under the legacy system and two percent per year under the Blended Retirement System — a twenty percent difference in pension at the same length of service, exchanged for the thrift savings match and continuation pay.
myPay: The self-service portal for pay statements, tax withholding, allotments and retiree account management. Access depends on credentials that change at separation, so statements needed as evidence should be downloaded and stored before the transition rather than after.

1 term

Nexus letter: A reasoned medical opinion addressing the relationship to service or a service-connected condition. It is not a universal filing requirement; some facts can be established by competent lay evidence or a legal presumption.

3 terms

OHAOverseas Housing Allowance: The overseas counterpart to the domestic housing allowance, differing from it in a way that matters: it reimburses actual rent up to a ceiling rather than paying a flat rate. A member who rents below the ceiling does not keep the difference. A move between a domestic and an overseas assignment therefore changes not only the amount but the entire logic of the allowance.
OMPFOfficial Military Personnel File: The permanent personnel record, known by different names across the services. Everything a board sees comes from it, and access is lost or made difficult after separation. Reviewing it and correcting omissions while still serving is far cheaper than a records correction application afterwards.
Open season: A limited period, opened by legislation rather than recurring on a schedule, during which retirees may enrol in or withdraw from the survivor benefit plan outside the ordinary election window. Because it depends on Congress acting, it cannot be planned around: a member declining coverage at retirement in the expectation of a future open season is relying on something that may not come. A separate and permanent withdrawal window exists in the third year of receiving retired pay.

8 terms

Paid-up status: The point at which survivor benefit premiums stop while coverage continues for life, reached after a defined number of years of premiums and a threshold age. It converts the plan from an indefinite deduction into a bounded cost, which changes the comparison against commercial alternatives substantially.
PCMPrimary Care Manager: The assigned provider or team responsible for a managed-care enrollee's routine care and for authorising referrals. Care obtained without a required referral is paid under the point-of-service rules, at much higher cost, which is the most common way an enrollee is surprised by a bill.
PCSPermanent Change of Station: A permanent move to a new duty station, as distinct from temporary duty. It resets the housing allowance to the new location's published rate, ending any rate protection held at the old one, and it triggers a set of entitlements — dislocation allowance, travel, household goods shipment, and temporary lodging. In most services it also carries a service-remaining requirement, which obliges the member to have enough time left to serve a tour but is NOT an active duty service commitment and does not extend the separation date.
PEBDPay Entry Base Date: The date from which time in service is counted for pay and retirement. It is the master clock for longevity pay steps and most time-in-service gates, and it is not always the same as the date you shipped.
Point of servicePOS option: The cost-sharing that applies when a managed-care enrollee obtains non-emergency care without a required referral. It carries a separate deductible and a high coinsurance rate, and — critically — amounts paid under it do not count toward the catastrophic cap. It is the most expensive way to use the benefit.
Post-9/11 GI BillChapter 33: The principal education benefit, paying tuition and fees to the school, a monthly housing allowance to the student, and an annual books stipend, for up to thirty-six months of full-time study. The amount paid is scaled by a tier percentage based on qualifying active duty service.
PPMPersonally Procured Move: A move in which the member arranges the transport of their own household goods and is reimbursed a percentage of what the government would have paid a carrier, formerly known as a do-it-yourself or DITY move. The reimbursement above actual documented costs is taxable income, which is the part most often missed at tax time.
PTDYPermissive Temporary Duty: Non-chargeable absence granted for house hunting or job search around a permanent change of station or separation. It does not consume leave, and it is separate from terminal leave — the two can often be sequenced together, which is a substantial and frequently unused entitlement.

12 terms

Rate of pursuit: The proportion of full-time study a student is enrolled in, which prorates the housing allowance and the rate at which entitlement is consumed. Falling below a threshold eliminates the housing allowance entirely rather than reducing it further, so the last credit hour dropped can be disproportionately expensive.
Rate protection: The rule preventing a member's housing allowance from being reduced when the published rate for their location falls, for as long as they remain in the same location and status. It protects against a rate cut, not against a change of circumstances: a permanent change of station, and in some cases a change in dependency status, resets the member to the current published rate.
RE codeReenlistment Eligibility code: A code recording whether the member is eligible to reenter service, and under what conditions. It is distinct from character of service, and a member with an honourable discharge may still carry a code that bars return. It is reviewable and, where wrong, correctable.
REDUX: A legacy retirement option under which a member accepted a mid-career cash bonus in exchange for a reduced multiplier and a reduced annual cost-of-living adjustment, with a partial catch-up at age sixty-two. It is closed to new entrants but still governs members who elected it, and its reduced adjustment compounds over a long retirement.
Referral: Authorisation from the primary care manager for a managed-care enrollee to be seen by a specialist. It is a plan requirement rather than a clinical formality: specialty care obtained without one is paid under the point-of-service rules regardless of how medically appropriate it was. Emergency care is the standing exception and does not require one in advance.
Regular Military CompensationRMC: The standard measure of total military compensation: basic pay, housing allowance, subsistence allowance, and the federal tax advantage arising from the allowances being untaxed. It exists because comparing a military salary to a civilian one on basic pay alone understates it substantially, while comparing on gross pay ignores the tax treatment.
Retired pay: The monthly payment for life to a member who retires from military service, computed as the retired pay base multiplied by the multiplier and adjusted annually for inflation. It is taxable federal income, though a number of states exempt it in whole or in part. It stops at the retiree's death, which is the entire reason the survivor annuity exists, and it can be reduced by a Department of Veterans Affairs waiver, a survivor plan premium, or a former spouse award.
Retired pay base: The figure the retired pay multiplier is applied to. Under the High-3 systems it is the average of the highest thirty-six months of BASIC PAY. Allowances never enter it, which is why a member whose take-home pay is largely allowances retires on less than they expect.
Retirement points: The unit of credit in the reserve retirement system, accumulated from drills, annual training, active duty, and membership. A qualifying year requires a minimum number of points, and the total drives the retired pay computation. Point statements contain errors with some regularity and are far easier to correct contemporaneously.
RMDRequired Minimum Distribution: The mandatory annual withdrawal from tax-deferred retirement balances beginning at a statutory age, calculated from the balance and a life expectancy factor. Roth balances in the Thrift Savings Plan are treated differently from traditional ones under current rules. The starting age has been raised more than once by legislation, so it should be confirmed rather than recalled.
Rollover: Moving a retirement balance to another qualified plan or individual retirement account. A direct transfer between institutions avoids withholding; an indirect rollover, where the money passes through the member's hands, triggers mandatory withholding and a deadline to redeposit the full amount including the withheld portion. Traditional and Roth balances must be tracked separately through the move.
Roth TSP: Contributions made after tax, with qualified withdrawals — contributions and growth alike — free of federal tax. Particularly consequential for a member contributing from combat-zone-excluded pay, where the contribution is untaxed going in and the qualified withdrawal is untaxed coming out. Government matching contributions are always traditional regardless of how the member contributes.

11 terms

Sanctuary: The protection available to a reserve component member who reaches a threshold of active duty service — commonly eighteen years — entitling them to remain on active duty to reach twenty and qualify for an active-duty retirement. Orders are frequently structured to avoid triggering it, so a member approaching the threshold should understand where they stand before accepting a tour.
SBPSurvivor Benefit Plan: An annuity paying a percentage of elected base amount to a surviving beneficiary after the retiree's death, funded by a premium deducted from retired pay. Retired pay itself stops at death; without this or equivalent provision, the survivor's income from it ends entirely. The annuity is adjusted for inflation, which is what makes it difficult to replicate with commercial insurance.
SBP election deadline: The election must be made BEFORE the first entitlement to retired pay. Doing nothing does not decline the plan — a married member who makes no election is generally enrolled at maximum coverage automatically. Declining, or electing less than the maximum, requires the spouse's documented concurrence. This is not a thirty-day clock, and describing it as one is a common and costly error.
SDPSavings Deposit Program: A savings account available to members deployed to designated areas, paying a guaranteed rate far above any commercial deposit account, subject to a deposit ceiling. Interest is taxable. Deposits and interest remain available for a limited period after the deployment ends, after which the account is closed out.
Secondary condition: A condition caused or made worse by an already service-connected one. It is claimable in its own right. Commonly missed, because people assume only the original injury counts.
Separation codeSPD code: A code on the discharge certificate recording the specific reason for separation. It is consulted by the Department of Veterans Affairs and by some employers, and can affect eligibility for benefits and for reenlistment. Because it is a code rather than prose, a member may not realise what it conveys until it is read by someone else.
SGLIServicemembers' Group Life Insurance: Low-cost group term life insurance provided during service, in coverage increments up to a statutory maximum, with a separate provision for dependents. Coverage ends shortly after separation, which is the moment the conversion question becomes urgent.
SHASeparation Health Assessment: The standardised examination and self-report completed near separation, recording the member's health at the moment they leave service. It is the single document that most often decides a later disability claim, because it establishes what conditions existed while still in uniform — the in-service element a claim must show. A condition the member has lived with for years but never reported does not appear in the record simply because it was real; it appears because it was written down before the last day.
SkillBridge: An authority permitting a member to spend a period at the end of service in civilian industry training or an internship while still on active duty and drawing full pay and benefits. Participation requires command approval, which is discretionary, and each service sets its own eligibility rules and caps.
Special and incentive payS&I pay: A broad family of additional payments tied to a skill, a duty, a hazard, or a retention agreement — flight pay, sea pay, dive pay, language proficiency pay, medical and dental special pays, and retention bonuses among them. Almost all are conditional on continuing to hold the qualification or perform the duty, which is why a budget built on them breaks when an assignment changes.
Supplemental Claim: An appeal lane where you add new and relevant evidence to a decided claim. It reverses many decisions. File within one year to keep the original effective date.

23 terms

TAMPTransitional Assistance Management Program: A period of premium-free transitional health coverage after certain qualifying separations. It does not follow every separation, and a member who assumes it applies to theirs can discover the gap only when a claim is denied. Voluntary separation at the end of an obligation generally does not qualify.
TAPTransition Assistance Program: The mandatory pre-separation programme covering benefits, employment, and financial planning, with additional tracks for education and entrepreneurship. It is required to begin no later than a set period before separation, and starting at the mandatory minimum rather than the earliest opportunity compresses every downstream deadline that depends on it.
Tax advantage: The additional civilian salary that would be needed to match a military compensation package, arising because the housing and subsistence allowances are not taxable income. The size of the advantage rises with the member's marginal tax rate, so the same allowance is worth more to a higher earner. It appears on no pay statement and must be computed.
TDIUTotal Disability based on Individual Unemployability: Payment at the 100% rate without a 100% schedular rating, when service-connected conditions prevent substantially gainful employment. Under 38 CFR 4.16(a) the schedular threshold is one condition at 60%, or one at 40% with a combined 70%.
TDPTRICARE Dental Program: The premium-based dental plan for active duty family members and reserve members. It ends at the sponsor's retirement, at which point the retiree's route to dental coverage is the federal dental and vision programme, a separate enrolment with its own window.
TERATemporary Early Retirement Authority: A temporary authority permitting retirement with between fifteen and twenty years of service, at a reduced multiplier. It is granted by legislation for defined periods and administered narrowly by each service, so its availability in any given year is a question of current policy rather than a standing feature of the retirement system.
Terminal leave: Accrued leave taken immediately before separation, during which the member remains on active duty and draws full pay and allowances. It is materially more valuable per day than selling the same leave, which pays basic pay alone. It also keeps healthcare and identification active until the final day.
TFLTRICARE For Life: TRICARE coverage from age 65. It is automatic once you hold Medicare Part A and Part B, and there is no separate enrollment fee — your Part B premium is the cost. Without Part B, TRICARE ends.
Tier percentage: The proportion of the full Post-9/11 benefit payable, determined by aggregate qualifying active duty service and stepping up through defined bands to one hundred percent. The bands are exact — a member a few weeks short of a boundary receives the lower tier, and the percentage applies to EVERY component of the benefit, not to tuition alone.
TLETemporary Lodging Expense: Reimbursement for lodging and meals during a limited number of days around a domestic permanent change of station, while a member is between residences. Its overseas counterpart, temporary lodging allowance, runs on different rules and a longer clock.
Top-up: The use of education benefit entitlement to cover the difference between tuition assistance and the actual cost of a course. It consumes entitlement at a rate tied to the amount paid, which can be an inefficient use of a benefit whose housing allowance component is worth more than the tuition itself.
Traditional TSP: Contributions made before tax, reducing taxable income in the year contributed, with the entire balance — contributions and growth — taxed as ordinary income on withdrawal. Favourable where the member's tax rate in retirement is expected to be lower than it is now.
Transfer of entitlementTOE: The transfer of unused Post-9/11 entitlement to a spouse or child. It must be requested and approved WHILE THE MEMBER IS STILL SERVING, requires a minimum period of service, and incurs an additional service commitment. The option disappears permanently at separation, and nothing about the benefit itself warns the member that a door is closing.
TRICARE For LifeTFL: Secondary coverage that pays after Medicare for beneficiaries entitled to Medicare Part A. It requires enrolment in Medicare Part B and payment of the Part B premium. It is not a plan a retiree enrols in separately — eligibility follows automatically from Medicare enrolment and a current record in the enrolment database.
TRICARE Prime: A managed-care option built around an assigned primary care manager who coordinates referrals to specialists. Lower out-of-pocket costs than the preferred-provider option, in exchange for less freedom to self-refer. Active duty members are enrolled in it; retirees may enrol where they live within a supported area and pay an annual enrolment fee.
TRICARE Reserve Select: A premium-based plan available to qualifying members of the Selected Reserve who are not eligible for federal employee health benefits. Coverage and cost shares resemble the preferred-provider option; the distinguishing feature is the monthly premium and the eligibility gate.
TRICARE Retired Reserve: A premium-based plan for retired reserve members who are under sixty and therefore not yet drawing retired pay. Premiums are considerably higher than the Selected Reserve plan because there is no service contribution. It bridges the gap years for a gray area retiree.
TRICARE Select: A self-managed preferred-provider option allowing care from any authorised provider without a referral, at higher cost-sharing than the managed-care option. It suits a member who values provider choice or lives outside a supported area. Cost shares differ sharply between the two cost groups.
TRICARE Young Adult: A premium-based plan allowing an adult child to continue coverage past the ordinary dependent age limit, up to a higher age ceiling, provided they are unmarried and not eligible for their own employer coverage. It is purchased separately and is not an extension of the family plan.
TSPThrift Savings Plan: The federal defined-contribution retirement account, equivalent in structure to a civilian 401(k) and among the lowest-cost retirement plans available anywhere. Under the Blended Retirement System it carries automatic and matching agency contributions; under the legacy system it accepts member contributions only. Balances follow the member after separation and need not be moved.
TSP loan: A loan from a member's own account balance, repaid with interest to the account itself. The cost is not the interest but the opportunity: the borrowed balance is out of the market while repaid. An outstanding loan at separation that is not repaid is treated as a taxable distribution, and may carry an additional early withdrawal penalty.
Tuition AssistanceTA: Service-funded tuition for courses taken while serving, subject to per-credit and annual caps set by each service. Using it incurs a service obligation in most services, and failing a course or withdrawing can trigger recoupment of the funds. It is separate from the education benefits and does not consume them.
Twenty-year cliff: The absence of any partial pension below twenty years of active service. Nineteen years and eleven months produces no retired pay; twenty years produces it for life, along with retiree healthcare and identification. There is no proration, which is why this single date distorts more career decisions than any other.

1 term

Unaccompanied tour: An assignment served without dependents at the duty location, either because the location is designated as unaccompanied or because the member elects to go alone when an accompanied tour was available. The distinction governs entitlements: an involuntary separation from dependents supports family separation allowance, while a voluntary one generally does not, even though the household runs in two places either way.

5 terms

VA offset: Retired pay and VA compensation do not simply add together. VA compensation is generally offset against retired pay unless CRDP or CRSC applies. People routinely overestimate retirement income by assuming the two stack.
VA waiver: The portion of retired pay you give up in order to receive VA compensation for the same service. It is why retired pay and VA compensation are an offset rather than a sum. CRDP and CRSC are the two programs that give it back.
Vesting: The point at which government contributions become the member's property irrevocably. Member contributions and their earnings are vested immediately and always. Matching contributions vest immediately. The automatic service contribution requires a minimum period of service, so a member who separates very early can forfeit that portion alone.
VGLIVeterans' Group Life Insurance: The post-service continuation of the group life policy. It can be taken WITHOUT evidence of insurability if applied for within a limited window after separation — a window that matters enormously to anyone whose health has changed during service. After it closes, coverage requires underwriting and may be unavailable at any price.
VR&EVeteran Readiness and Employment, Chapter 31: A Department of Veterans Affairs programme providing training and employment services to veterans with a service-connected disability and an employment handicap. It can pay for education at a subsistence allowance and, unlike the education benefits, is oriented to a specific employment outcome. Eligibility turns on a rating and a determination of need, not on service length.

1 term

With-dependents rate: The higher of the two housing allowance rates, paid to any member with at least one dependent. It is a rate and not a headcount — marriage moves a single member onto it, a first child moves a single member onto it, and a second or third child adds nothing further. Household costs scale with family size; this allowance does not.

1 term

Yellow Ribbon: A voluntary agreement under which a participating school and the Department of Veterans Affairs share tuition costs above the private-school annual cap. Participation, the number of funded places, and the amount are set by each school and can change year to year, so a figure confirmed for one academic year should not be assumed for the next.