Congratulations-- it's great to watch a plan come together!
I intend to retire from the Navy on that date, but not sure what I'm going to do from there yet. I shouldn't need to work, but have more to give and time to give it, which could afford a higher standard of living for us. Wife will continue to work for some time as well, so odds are good that we'll spend some time "running up the score". Not concerned - we'll figure out a way to "blow that dough".
“I’m going to spend a few months with family while I decide which career field to pursue.”
You may be surprised at how many other priorities you develop, as long as you have dinner on the table when your spouse comes home from the workday.
For me, the biggest issue with working after military retirement was the commitment. I was reluctant to take a job just to see how I could do, and I felt obligated to give an employer at least a year of my time. Then I realized that I’d like a whole lot more vacation time than an employer might be willing to handle. Suddenly my time became more important than any amount of money.
I also wasn’t sure that I’d be able to treat any job as just a job instead of a ladder-climbing career.
If you’re ambivalent then it might be worth keeping your security clearance updated and active. If you need a new investigation before 2020 then it’s best to start now. If you decide to take a job with a clearance right after retiring from active duty, then you could transfer in status. If you take a gap year then you could simply keep track of your clearance data and let your new employer work it out with the government. If any of this paragraph seems like an onerous chore then that could be a sign of your actual interest in a bridge career.
Another way to assess your bridge-career aspirations is attending TAP now. You’ll listen to your fellow TAP attendees and decide if their career-search ambitions are what you want to do. Or you could track down some recent retirees in your area for a cup of coffee.
If you take the “few months with family” approach, then you might not hear anything until July. You might not be subject to the six-month ethics rules but I got a noticeable surge of queries on the 181st day after my retirement date.
- Post 9/11 GI Bill still has 19 months of value, meaning DD could go basically anywhere and we'd have to pay for about 3 semesters. *IF* I get a disability rating next year, she'll be able to attend any CA state school tuition free if we are still CA residents at that time, which is likely.
A 0% VA disability rating is all that's required for the CalVet tuition benefit. I'm almost surely going to qualify for that based on back and hip injuries for which I've sought treatment multiple times during my career but which aren't much more than a nuisance for me right now. While that doesn't warrant any kind of direct VA compensation, it checks the block for CalVet benefits.
You’ve already figured out CalVet, and you can get the VA disability claim started before you finish the retirement physical. Your rating letter will not be official until at least the date of your retirement. The biggest issue with filing a VA disability claim in a military concentration area is that there are usually far more veterans than C&P appointments.
I have four posts on the blog which walk through the techniques you can use to make it easier for the C&P doctors to do their job. You’re right to continue to seek treatment in addition to documenting the service-connected disability. Otherwise you might be deemed “cured”.
http://the-military-guide.com/file-veterans-disability-claim-not-just/
It’s very much worth your time to spend a few hours with the Disability Benefits Questionnaires (linked from those posts) and the VA disability ratings schedule:
The Original Legal Text of the Schedule for Rating Disabilities
The actual disability rating is not a CalVets issue, and the disability money is not an issue for you, but you absolutely want to document the baseline. Who knows, now that you can have a real doctor’s conversation without worrying about flight status, you might be able to work out a more comprehensive treatment plan.
You might have already seen this post from Eddie Wills:
The $122K Mistake I made leaving Active Duty | GubMints
He’s a submarine vet, and he’s also a few miles up the road from you. It’s worth seeking him out about civil service versus corporate careers. He has plenty of suggestions and SoCal contacts. I’d send him an e-mail through his site.
- Started working up a "real world" resume; also started working on some coaching certifications as well as potential employment certifications. I've got some time now to wrap some of those things up, get some medical issues addressed, and make preparations for my much-anticipated transition to civilian life next fall.
Have you sent a PM to Laurence yet? He’s very familiar with the SoCal career market for military veterans. Lee Cohen of Lucas Group is also up in Irvine and would be happy to point you into their funnel.
I was stationed at the former FCTCPAC (up on top of Point Loma by TACTRAGRUPAC) from 1994-97. Coronado was nice, but I really disliked the “Coronado tax”. (“Oh, you’re in Coronado? Let me add 25% to that estimate.”) Going north and east from there gives you lots of home & schools options, although that depends on whether you plan to commute to a job.
