Active Duty To Guard/Reserve: How Military Benefits Change

Joe Wallace

Transitioning from active duty to the National Guard or Reserve is a shift from a full-time military commitment to a part-time service obligation. Making the switch affects compensation, healthcare, and retirement benefits, and it pays to know how those benefits are affected long before you decide to leave active service. We cover some of the basics below.

Active Duty To Guard/Reserve: How Military Benefits Change

Active duty personnel serve full-time in a permanent capacity, whereas members of the Reserve Component (including the National Guard) maintain civilian lives while serving part-time, one weekend per month, plus two weeks per year, unless deployed.

Active duty pay includes a monthly salary along with non-taxable allowances for housing (BAH) and food (BAS). When switching to the Guard or Reserve, pay becomes based on individual training periods. A standard “drill weekend” comprises four four-hour periods. Each period is worth 1/30th of the monthly basic pay for the member’s rank and time in service.

Reservists do not receive housing or food allowances for these training periods. These allowances only apply when a member serves on active duty orders for 30 days or more, when the service member earns the full active duty scale for their rank and time in service, including BAH and BAS based on the duty location.

Healthcare Options and TRICARE Enrollment

Transitioning from active duty ends eligibility for the active duty TRICARE Prime health plan unless the member is activated for more than 30 days. To maintain military medical coverage, Guard and Reserve members must enroll in TRICARE Reserve Select (TRS).

TRS is a premium-based plan that requires the member to pay a monthly fee. Unlike the active-duty model, TRS users are responsible for annual deductibles and cost-sharing for medical services. This shift introduces a recurring monthly expense and potential out-of-pocket healthcare costs that do not exist for active-duty families.

Education Benefits And Tuition Assistance

Service members keep the Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) earned during their active duty service if they serve long enough to qualify. National Guard members frequently receive additional state-funded tuition assistance as many states offer 100% tuition waivers at state-supported colleges for their Guard members.

Those who serve long enough on active duty to earn the GI Bill do not lose it by transferring to the Guard or Reserve. And what about those who start in the Guard/Reserve? They should consider the information at Army.mil:

“Reserve Service members on drill status that served at least 90 aggregate days on active duty after September 10, 2001, or served 30 continuous days on active duty after September 10, 2001, and were honorably discharged for a service-connected disability, are eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill.”

Military Retirement Pay

Retirement eligibility in the Reserve Component differs from that of active-duty troops. In the Reserve, military retirement is calculated using a point system rather than years of continuous service. To earn a “qualifying year” toward military retirement, a member must accumulate at least 50 retirement points annually through drills, training, and active duty periods.

Active duty retirees begin receiving monthly pension payments immediately upon leaving service. Reserve Component retirees must wait until age 60 to start receiving retired pay and full retiree healthcare. Members can reduce this age by three months for every 90 days of qualifying active service, but they typically spend several years in a “gray area” where they are retired but not yet receiving a pension.