Reserve Officers Association

Calculation of Mandatory Removal Date for Officers
Resolution 10-33

WHEREAS, the Department of Defense seeks to more fully develop and implement flexible continuum of service policies in the management of its vital commissioned officer corps;

WHEREAS, current laws establish the Mandatory Removal Date (MRD) for commissioned officers in grades O-5 and O-6 as the first day of the month following the month in which they reach 28 and 30 years of commissioned service respectively; and

WHEREAS, the current beginning date for establishing the MRD is from the Basic Date of Appointment (Commissioning Date); and

WHEREAS, up to 36 months of educational delay may be granted between commissioning and reporting for Army Initial Military Training (IMT) or its equivalent in other services; and

WHEREAS, other reasons result in delay of reporting for and completion of IMT, especially for Reserve Commissioned Officers; and

WHEREAS, a recent group of newly-commissioned Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) graduates was assigned to the Individual Ready Reserve pending availability of opportunities for flight school training; and

WHEREAS, throughout their careers, military officers are mandated to receive scarce and costly Professional Military Education and serve in demanding developmental assignments gaining tremendous and difficult to replace experience, making some of them extraordinarily critical to national security; and

WHEREAS, officers who serve until their MRD have met demanding criteria in order to be promoted to the grades O-5 and O-6 and typically continue to serve at their choice if selected for retention; and

WHEREAS, any significant delay between the Basic Date of Appointment and the beginning of IMT early in an officer’s career, while he or she is waiting to be trained, under current law, essentially shortens that officer’s useful career later, when he or she is arguably the most valuable and difficult to replace; and

WHEREAS, each June and July, due to the majority of officers being commissioned in May and June, officer readiness strength figures decline dramatically as MRD is applied to successive year groups of officers;

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Reserve Officers Association of the United States, chartered by Congress, urge the Congress to amend appropriate segments of United States Code as pertain to the duration calculation of Mandatory Removal Date for military commissioned officers such that the Mandatory Removal Date shall be calculated from the date of entry onto active duty or into Initial Military Training in a commissioned officer’s respective uniformed service.

Adopted as 10-33 by National Council on June 27, 2010


> Back to Current Resolutions