§ 8323. Officers: 20 years

2,209 words·~10 min read·/usc/title-10/section-8323

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(1)An officer of the Navy or the Marine Corps who applies for retirement after completing more than 20 years of active service, of which at least 10 years was service as a commissioned officer, may, in the discretion of the President, be retired on the first day of any month designated by the President.

(A)The Secretary of Defense may authorize the Secretary of the Navy, during the period specified in subparagraph (B), to reduce the requirement under paragraph

(1)for at least 10 years of active service as a commissioned officer to a period (determined by the Secretary) of not less than eight years.

(B)The period specified in this subparagraph is the period beginning on January 7, 2011, and ending on September 30, 2018.

(b)For the purposes of this section—

(1)an officer’s years of active service are computed by adding all his active service in the armed forces; and

(2)his years of service as a commissioned officer are computed by adding all his active service in the armed forces under permanent or temporary appointments in grades above warrant officer, W–1.

(c)The retired grade of an officer retired under this section is the grade determined under section 1370 or 1370a of this title, as applicable.

(d)A warrant officer who retires under this section may elect to be placed on the retired list in the highest grade and with the highest retired pay to which he is entitled under any provision of this title. If the pay of that highest grade is less than the pay of any warrant grade satisfactorily held by him on active duty, his retired pay shall be based on the higher pay.

(e)Unless otherwise entitled to higher pay, an officer retired under this section is entitled to retired pay computed under section 8333 of this title.

(f)Officers of the Navy Reserve and the Marine Corps Reserve who were transferred to the Retired Reserve from an honorary retired list under section 213(b) of the Armed Forces Reserve Act of 1952 (66 Stat. 485), or are transferred to the Retired Reserve under section 8327 of this title, may be retired under this section, notwithstanding their retired status, if they are otherwise eligible.

(Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 394, § 6323; Pub. L. 85–861, § 1(142), Sept. 2, 1958, 72 Stat. 1509; Pub. L. 88–132, § 5(h)(4), Oct. 2, 1963, 77 Stat. 214; Pub. L. 96–342, title VIII, § 813(d)(2), Sept. 8, 1980, 94 Stat. 1104; Pub. L. 96–513, title V, §§ 503(47)(A), 513(17), Dec. 12, 1980, 94 Stat. 2914, 2932; Pub. L. 99–348, title II, § 203(b)(2), July 1, 1986, 100 Stat. 696; Pub. L. 101–510, div. A, title V, § 523(b), Nov. 5, 1990, 104 Stat. 1562; Pub. L. 103–160, div. A, title V, § 561(c), Nov. 30, 1993, 107 Stat. 1667;

Pub. L. 105–261, div. A, title V, § 561(e), Oct. 17, 1998, 112 Stat. 2025; Pub. L. 106–398, § 1 [[div. A], title V, § 571(e)], Oct. 30, 2000, 114 Stat. 1654, 1654A–134; Pub. L. 109–163, div. A, title V, §§ 502(b), 515(b)(1)(H), Jan. 6, 2006, 119 Stat. 3225, 3233; Pub. L. 109–364, div. A, title X, § 1071(a)(33), Oct. 17, 2006, 120 Stat. 2400; Pub. L. 111–383, div. A, title V, § 506(b), Jan. 7, 2011, 124 Stat. 4210; Pub. L. 112–239, div. A, title V, § 505(b), title X, § 1076(e)(6), Jan. 2, 2013, 126 Stat. 1715, 1951; renumbered § 8323 and amended Pub. L. 115–232, div. A, title VIII, §§ 807(b)(15), 809(a), Aug. 13, 2018, 132 Stat. 1836, 1840;

Pub. L. 116–283, div. A, title V, § 508(b)(3)(B), Jan. 1, 2021, 134 Stat. 3585.)

In subsection

(b)the words “or the Reserve Components thereof” are omitted because the terms “Navy”, “Marine Corps”, and “Coast Guard” include the reserve components. The words “including active duty for training” are omitted because the term “active duty” is defined in this title as including training duty.

The Act of April 14, 1949 (34 U.S.C. 410b–1), extending the benefits of 34 U.S.C. 410b to officers on the honorary retired lists, was enacted because the Comptroller General had held that these officers, being already in a retired status, could not be retired under 34 U.S.C. 410b (U.S. Code Congressional Service, 1949, p. 1179). The provisions of the Naval Reserve Act of 1938 relating to the honorary retired lists were repealed by § 803 of the Armed Forces Reserve Act of 1952, but insofar as they provided for retirement and retired pay they were reenacted, for a period of 20 years, in § 413 of that act (50 U.S.C. 1052).

Persons on the honorary retired lists when the Armed Forces Reserve Act of 1952 was passed were transferred to the appropriate Retired Reserve under § 213 of the Act. Persons qualifying for retirement under § 413 are likewise placed in the Retired Reserve. The purpose of Congress in enacting § 413 was to preserve the accrued rights of persons who were members of reserve components on January 1, 1953, the effective date of the Act (U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News, 1952, p. 3584).

One of their rights was the right to apply for retirement under 34 U.S.C. 410b upon completion of the required service, notwithstanding the fact that, before qualifying for retirement under that section, they had already acquired a retired status. Subsection

(c)is worded accordingly.

In subsection (b), the words “armed forces” are substituted for the words “Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, or Coast Guard, or the Reserve Components thereof” because “armed forces”, as defined in this title, is a collective term for these elements.

Subsections

(c)and

(e)state rules, formerly stated in section 6325, with respect to officers retired under this section.

Subsection

(d)states a rule, formerly stated in section 6325, with respect to warrant officers retired under this section.

In subsections

(c)and (e), the words “Unless otherwise entitled to a higher grade” and “Unless otherwise entitled to higher pay” are substituted for 34 App.:410c(b).

In subsection (d), the second and third provisos of 34 App.:410b, relating to officers whose basic pay is not based on years of service, is omitted as obsolete. Under the Career Compensation Act of 1949 (37 U.S.C. 231 et seq.), the basic pay of all officers is based on years of service. The subsection is worded to conform to the terminology of the Career Compensation Act of 1949 and to make clear the fact that the amount of retired pay is not permanently fixed at the time of retirement but is subject to change when rates of basic pay are changed, as provided in 34 App.:410q.

Subsection

(f)was formerly subsection (c).