As a former enlisted soldier and West Point graduate, Congressman Davis has made protecting the health and welfare of our service men and women one of his top priorities. For several years, he has been fighting to correct a longstanding inequity in the military’s method of computing military disability retirement pay.
In 2006, Congressman Davis met a severely injured member of the Kentucky Army National Guard at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. This service member, whose home is in Kentucky’s Fourth District, told Geoff about a disparity between what reservists and members of the active armed forces receive in disability retirement pay after being wounded in action and deemed to be permanently disabled.
Under current law, a reservist only gets credit for the time he actually spends in uniform. For instance, a soldier who has spent thirteen years in the Kentucky Army National Guard may have only four years of service when his duty days are calculated. As a result, the reservist may receive less disability retirement pay than his active counterpart despite equal time in the Army and the same disability.
For example, let us suppose that two soldiers, one from the active army and one from the Kentucky Army National Guard (KYARNG), are wounded in the same improvised explosive device (IED) incident in Afghanistan. Both soldiers are retired from the Army because of their identical combat wounds, and both receive disability retirement pay for a thirty-percent disability. Additionally, both soldiers are staff sergeants. The first has been in the active army for thirteen years. The second has been in the KYARNG for thirteen years. Even though both have been in the U.S. Army for thirteen years, the soldier from the KYARNG, because he only spent four of those thirteen years actually in uniform, will receive eight percent less disability retirement pay. In short, two soldiers wounded in the same incident and with identical disabilities wind up getting different retirement checks for the rest of their lives.
Upon learning of this inequity, Congressman Davis began working toward a solution. The House-passed version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2009 (H.R. 5658) included a provision that would have equalized disability retirement pay for reservists (to include members of the National Guard) who are wounded in action. Ultimately, this provision was not included in the final version of the NDAA.
However, Congressman Davis has already offered legislation (H.R. 1994) in the 111th Congress that would provide equity between active and reserve members of the armed forces in the computation of disability retired pay for personnel wounded in action.
View the Legislation
You can see a PDF copy of Congressman Davis' legislation by clicking here.
Read More
Follow Congressman Davis' fight to protect our service men and women from this inequity.
February 1, 2009:
AUSA News: Equalizing Disability Retirement Pay, an article by Congressman Geoff Davis
May 28, 2008:
House Passes National Defense Authorization Act; Includes Davis Provision to Equalize Disability Retirement Pay for Reservists
May 29, 2007
Honoring Our Heroes
