Concurrent Retirement & Disability Pay (CRDP)

Public Law 108-136, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, authorized a provision to restore the retired pay currently deducted from retirees' accounts due to the receipt of Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability compensation. Concurrent Retirement & Disability Pay (CRDP) is the gradual (phased in) restoration of the retired pay currently being offset by VA disability pay. Under the current law, retirees who are entitled to CRDP will receive both full military retired pay and full VA disability pay with no reduction (i.e., concurrent receipt) by 2014.

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Reunion

The return home from combat can often leave servicemembers feeling out of place with the most important people in their lives - their families.

"In deployment, Soldiers grow accustomed to a new lifestyle and a new 'family' - those buddies that bond together to defend each other," said Maj. Ken Williams, 14th Military Police Brigade chaplain. "This lifestyle change is prolonged and becomes familiar, i.e., the new normal."

The families also change while the Soldier is deployed.

"The family is a system," Williams said. "When one family member is absent, the whole system changes. All members of the family adapt to a new 'normal' way of life."

When the servicemember returns, the family may feel uncomfortable with each other, and the servicemember may withdraw from the family.