Q. I was part of a reduction in force and made to retire from the military under 20 years. How does it affect my service computation date (SCD) when I get a federal law enforcement officer job? Does that time (let’s say 15 years of service) count for my SCD for annual leave accrual?
A. According to OPM, you would only receive annual leave credit for your active-duty service “if your retirement resulted from an injury or disease received in the line of duty as a direct result of armed conflict or was caused by an instrumentality of war and incurred in the line of duty during a period of was as defined in sections 101 and 301 of Title 38, United States Code.”
You could get credit for your active-duty service in setting your service computation date if you made a deposit of a percentage of your active-duty pay to the civilian retirement system and, when you retired, waived your military retired pay. Note: If you receive credit for that period of active-duty service, it wouldn’t count toward the 20 years of actual service needed to qualify for a law enforcement officer retirement.
