What steps I should be taking to ensure I get a med board, or should I just hire an attorney now?

2021-05-02T18:09:56-04:00

I am a reservist with 16 "good years" and rated at 90% VA disability from my active duty time. During my last PHA the physician said he would medical board me due to medical conditions and I replied great! I'm wanting to retire now. My problem is my ETS is in 3 months and I've heard nothing from medical after several inquiries and they don't/won't put me on no pay/no points status, which is all I really need to submit to the AFRC and I am eligible for retirement because I'm over the magic 15 mark. Can anyone tell me what steps I should be taking or should I just hire an attorney now?

Response by SSgt Christophe Murphy made May 3 at 2021 11:59 AM

2021-05-03T11:59:33-04:00

If you are already retirement eligible and already at 90% I don't know what you are trying to achieve with a medical retirement. Regardless of the reasons, you need more than 3 months for the medboard process to run it's course. I'm not familiar with the reserve/guard med board process but on the AD side it takes 6 months just for the package to process after it is submitted for evaluation. That means you will need to re-up or extend. But I would highly recommend you push for 20 years if you can. A lot of things change when you retire under 20 in comparison to a full 20+ retirement. But 3 months isn't enough time to make anything happen.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made May 3 at 2021 12:14 PM

2021-05-03T12:14:37-04:00

An attorney isn't going to help you. A Med board is a medical referral not an admin or legal action to initiate it. If you're only 3 months away you don't have enough time to process a MEB. You'll usually have to reenlist or extend long enough to start the MEB process, once it's started then your PEBLO can get an ETS extension for you.

There is no magic 15 year mark. Retirement is 20 years unless you are medically retired.

Response by SFC Jake Middaugh made May 3 at 2021 1:48 PM

2021-05-03T13:48:42-04:00

Being a Being a reservist, the MEB/PEB is a bit different. There are two ways to initiate it:
- Your Commander has the authority to initiate it
Or
- you must be on a profile for 1 year. Each profile is good for up to 90 days, and then they would have to be extended & continued for 1 year - then it would be referred to the MEB.

Because you already have 90% with the VA, it is surprising that you had no profiles starting the MEB/PEB...
Nevertheless, because you already have 90%, you should be able to get ample Documentation to start the profiles and eventually get referred to the MEB.
For your case, I would recommend having a meeting with your Commander and First Sergeant so they can immediately initiate the MEB/PEB. This could save you a few years of trying to get on the MEB yourself through extended profiles!!!

Many Reserve commanders don't even know they have this Authority. But it could save them and yourself lots of time and effort. Just explain to them that being on a dead man's profile would leave the unit with you stuck in that position and not able to do your job...

In my case, I had to use the profiles to start the MEB. This was a very arduous process, because you are not active duty, having it easy just going to the TMC whenever you want. Unfortunately, As a reservist you have to go to all the appointments in your local town. In my case, I had to make this my everyday job, to get on the MEB - as it took all my time getting all the documents together, going to all the appointments, & making sure my profiles kept getting extended and not running out causing a break in the profiles which would force me to initiate the whole process to start over again...
Not to mention you don't get paid like active duty does while you're going through the MEB.
From start to finish, it took me two and a half years to get to the MEB & another year to get through the MEB and be retired with the reserves.

I knew A Lieutenant Colonel who just medically retired last year with the reserves that has been trying to get the Meb process completed and he said he started his and 2013!

You won't need a "lawyer". As soon as you're accepted to the MEB/PEB, JAG will give you a briefing and will assign you a Jag representative while you were going through the board process. They represented me good enough and I did not have to use outside DAV assistance.

Again, this is a very different process being in the reserves as compared to the active-duty. If you have any questions just message me and I'll be happy to give you advice or help you any other way I can.
Keep at it brother!

Response by SFC Gary (Bigsarge) Portier USARMY RET. made May 9 at 2021 9:12 AM

2021-05-09T09:12:00-04:00

Complete Da Form 507 and submit, this is the starting Point.