10 U.S.C. § 14507 — Removal from the reserve active-status list for years of service: reserve lieutenant colonels and colonels of the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps and reserve commanders and captains of the Navy

(a) Lieutenant Colonels and Commanders. Unless continued on the reserve active-status list under section 14701, 14701a, or 14702, or retained under section 12646 or 12686, each reserve officer of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps holding the grade of lieutenant colonel or commander who is not on a promotion-recommended list must — if not already removed earlier — be removed from the reserve active-status list under section 14514, on the first day of the month after the officer completes 28 years of commissioned service. (b) Colonels and Navy Captains. Under the same exceptions, a reserve colonel (Army, Air Force, or Marine Corps) or reserve Navy captain who is not on a promotion-recommended list must be removed on the first day of the month after completing 30 years of commissioned service. This subsection does not apply to a state's adjutant general or assistant adjutants general. (c) Temporary Authority To Retain Certain Officers Designated as Judge Advocates. (1) Despite subsections (a) and (b), the Secretary of the Air Force could retain on the reserve active-status list an Air Force reserve officer who was designated a judge advocate and got their first law degree through an educational-delay program after being commissioned through ROTC. (2) No more than 50 officers could be retained this way at any one time. (3) No officer could be retained this way for more than three years past when they would otherwise have been removed under subsection (a) or (b). (4) This authority for the Secretary of the Air Force ended on September 30, 2003.