42 U.S.C. § 212 — Retirement of commissioned officers

(a) Age; voluntariness; length of service; computation of retired pay (1) A Regular Corps officer who asks to retire must be retired the month after turning 64. This paragraph doesn't let anyone be forced to retire just because of their age. (2) The Secretary can retire a Regular Corps officer, and must retire one who asks, once the officer has completed 30 years of active service. (3) An officer with less than 30 years of active service can be retired by the Secretary — with or without the officer asking — once the officer has 20 or more years of active service, at least 10 of which were as a commissioned officer in a uniformed service. (4) Unless paragraph (6) applies, an officer retired under (1), (2), or (3) who was on active duty with the Regular Corps the day before retiring gets retired pay figured this way: Start with the officer's "retired pay base" (set under a title 10 rule). Multiply it by a "retired pay multiplier" (also set under a title 10 rule) for the officer's credited years of service. Count years either (A) as each year of actual active service, or (B) if it gives higher pay, add up: (i) years of active service in any uniformed service; plus (ii) for medical or dental officers, four extra years (one more for medical officers who finished an internship), reduced by time spent in medical or dental school or in that internship; plus (iii) certain years the officer was credited with for basic-pay purposes as of May 31, 1958 (or an earlier date if higher), minus any years already counted above and minus years already credited under a separate title 37 rule before June 1, 1958. Then two caps and one substitution apply: (C) If the officer's computed retired pay comes out below 50% of basic pay, and the officer retired under paragraph (1) with at least 12 full years of active service, and isn't also using that service toward a separate title 5 retirement annuity, the retired pay is instead set at 50% of basic pay. (D) Retired pay can never exceed 75% of basic pay. (E) For an officer in the "modernized retirement system" under title 10, the 50% figure in (C) becomes 40% instead. (5) With the President's approval, an officer who served four or more years as Surgeon General, Deputy Surgeon General, or Assistant Surgeon General, and has at least 25 years of active service in the Regular Corps, may retire voluntarily at any time. Unless paragraph (6) applies, that officer's retired pay is 75% of the highest basic pay they held in that role. (6) For an officer who first became a member of a uniformed service after September 7, 1980, retired pay is instead figured by multiplying (A) a different "retired pay base" (set under title 10) by (B) the retired pay multiplier for the years credited under paragraph (4). (7) If retired pay computed under section 211(g)(3) of this title, or under paragraph (4) or (5) of this subsection, isn't a whole dollar amount, it's rounded down to the next whole dollar. (b) Basic pay of highest temporary grade. If an officer received a temporary promotion, "basic pay" for the subsection (a) calculations means what the officer would earn in that higher grade if still on active duty in it on the retirement date. (c) Recall to active duty. An officer retired for reasons other than failing promotion to the senior grade may: (1) if a Regular Corps officer entitled to retired pay under subsection (a) or under section 213a(a)(19) of this title, be involuntarily recalled to active duty while the Commissioned Corps counts as part of the U.S. land or naval forces; or (2) if a Regular Corps or Ready Reserve Corps officer, be recalled to active duty at any time with the officer's consent. (d) "Active service" defined. For subsection (a), "active service" includes: (1) all active service in any uniformed service; (2) non-commissioned active service with the Public Health Service that the Surgeon General finds comparable to Regular Corps commissioned service — capped at the last five years if there's more than five; (3) other active service that's creditable toward retirement under laws governing other uniformed services' retirement; and (4) service as a member of the Senior Biomedical Research Service established by section 237 of this title — also capped at the last five years if there's more than five. (e) Crediting part of a year. When counting years for the retired-pay formulas in section 211(g)(3) or subsection (a)(4), each extra full month beyond an officer's full years of credited service counts as one-twelfth of a year. Any leftover part of a month is disregarded. (f) Retirement or separation for physical disability. For disability retirement or separation under chapter 61 of title 10, a Regular Corps officer is credited, in addition to service already described in a title 10 provision, with non-commissioned active Public Health Service service that the Surgeon General finds comparable to Regular Corps commissioned service — capped at the last five years if there's more than five. That title 10 provision applies to Regular Corps officers for this purpose.