Active Duty Military

Eligibility

You can receive credit for time you spend in active duty military service with the United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, or Coast Guard. There may or may not be a cost to you, depending on whether your active duty service occurred during (intervening) or outside of (nonintervening) your employment with the Michigan State Police.

Conditions

• You cannot receive credit for military service if you receive credit for the same service under another retirement system. However, this restriction doesn't apply if you will be eligible to retire from the federal government for service in the reserve component.
• If you are receiving disability benefits from the Veterans Administration and are not eligible to receive a regular age and service retirement benefit now or in the future, you may be eligible to purchase your active duty service. You will need to provide a copy of your most recent Retiree Account Statement (RAS). This can be obtained at https://myPay.dfas.mil, by phoning (800) 321-1080, or writing to the address below.
  
  Defense Finance and Accounting Service
  U.S. Military Retirement Pay
  P.O. Box 7130
  London KY 40742-7130
   
• You cannot receive more than a total of two years of service credit for any combination of VISTA, Peace Corps, intervening military service that doesn't meet criteria under USERRA, or nonintervening military service.

Intervening military service

Your service is considered intervening service if you leave state police employment, directly enter active duty in the U.S. armed forces, including reserve components, and return to employment with the Michigan State Police within six months of discharge.

The amount of service credit you may receive depends on whether or not your intervening military leave of absence meets criteria provided under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994. USERRA is a federal law that provides reemployment rights for individuals who have served in the military.

If your intervening military leave doesn't meet criteria under USERRA, you may receive up to two years of service credit at no cost.

If your intervening military leave does meet criteria under USERRA, you may be eligible to receive up to five years of service credit at no cost. You must report to work within the time limit provided under USERRA or you may lose your rights to these retirement benefits.

Service credit will be granted for the time you served in the military, plus any creditable decompression time allowed under the following:

• Less than 31 days. Your military service and travel time from the place of service to your residence, plus 8 hours.
• 31 to 180 days. Your military service and up to 14 days of decompression time.
• 181 or more. Your military service and up to 90 days of decompression time.

Intervening military credit that doesn't meet criteria under USERRA cannot be credited until you have 10 years of service with the Michigan State Police.

Nonintervening military service

Your service is considered nonintervening service if it does not interrupt your service with the Michigan State Police.

If your active duty U.S. military service did not interrupt your state police service, you can purchase up to two years of credit in any fraction of a year increment. The service cannot be credited until you have 10 years of service with the Michigan State Police, the last five years of service need to be continuous service.

Cost

Intervening service credit: No cost.

Nonintervening service credit: Your cost is 5 percent of your full-time compensation in the fiscal year you make the payment, multiplied by the number of years of military credit you purchase. You can use miAccount to estimate your cost.

Application

Use miAccount to get a personalized Military Service Credit Application (R0081H). Submit your completed application to ORS with a copy of your military discharge papers (DD214) showing entry and separation dates.

For copies of your military papers, write to: National Personnel Records Center, Military Personnel Records, 9700 Page Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63132-5100. You can obtain the request form online by visiting www.archives.gov.