This message updated the window for applying for retirement!
No more than 18 months from requested date, and no less than 6 months from requested date!
Let's talk about military retirement...and more specifically, retirement from the U.S. Marine Corps.
For a bit of context here, I found it strange that I couldn't find any good "how-to" tales for Marine Corps retirement on the interwebs as I begin thinking about my own journey towards transition. I found plenty of stories from other branches...even found plenty of emotional and surgically executed ceremony videos, just no start-to-finish stories on how this process actually worked from "Genesis" to no-shave retirement scumbaggery (where we all really want to be, deep down). This is really just a re-cap on my most recent video on that very subject, just in a more readable state.
You can check that video out here:
The first reference that you need to consult is the MARCORSEPMAN, or the Marine Corps Separations and Retirement Manual (or...MCO 1900.16), link below:
Within this reference, you'll find the rules regarding retirement...but most importantly, since we all know that retirement normally comes after having reached 20 years of active service, what you want to look for is the "Appendix J."
The "Appendix J" is the document that you will submit to your commander in order to request retirement. You'll place your requested retirement date on there, give a brief reason for the request ("On this requested date, I will have served on active duty for XX years..."), and sign/date before submitting to your admin shop or leadership for routing. The window for requesting retirement utilizing the Appendix J without any waiver requests is 4-14 months from your requested date of retirement...no earlier than 14 months, no less than 4 months out. If you are outside of that window, it's a good idea to draft a waiver request and that is communicated/requested via the "AA" or administrative action form.
Within this waiver request, you want to be sure that you really tell your story - the why behind such an early request. For mine, it looked something like this:
Once you route this and the commander signs it, it's off to MMSR, who handles all of the separations and retirement business at HQMC. Once they receive it, you may or may not get an email from them stating that they did...and that you should be patient while they take as many as 6-8 weeks to get an approval or not. Now, the first notification that I got wasn't really a notification at all...I just kept checking my BIR (Basic Individual Record) on Marine Online. Go to your BIR, scroll aaallllll the way down. Once they've received your request, you'll get a "pending" statement down there. This happened in about a week. See below:
A day or two after this change happened, I did get an email from MMSR. I got excited, but then someone told me to not be too thrilled, because this only means that the request was received. Within a week, this screen changed again...
This was the one that I'd reeeeaaaally been waiting on. From this point, your date's locked in there, allowing you to really begin the back-planning that you want to get after. The list of decisions that you now have to make is short, so don't be afraid...
- Life insurance?
- SBP?
- VGLI decisions
- Budgeting
- Retirement location
- Travel plans
- How to sell everything in your house or identify what's moving and what ain't
- Will I work again? Do I need to? Will it keep me sane?
- Can I grow mangoes and do YouTube/blog full time?
- SkillBridge program
- School situation for kids
- College
- GI Bill
- Transportation (do we need to buy real cars again?!)
- BAH rates
- VA disability rating process
Let's take the journey together. If this helped you out whatsoever, or you think that it might help other Belleau Woodsmen as they near the finish, please do share and stay tuned to Free Lance Travels on YouTube (or here) for updates as we gear up for retirement and resettling in the Land of Smiles. Cheers for now, and thanks for coming by, gang!
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