Maybe this is a moment to clear up a general misconception I have about military benefits as a civilian. I thought if you had served in the US military for some minimum 3-5 year tour of duty per requirements and were honorably discharged you had guaranteed very low cost, high benefit medical care via the military for the rest of your life.
You guys seem to be saying that if you were not injured, disabled by your service or impoverished this is not necessarily the case.
To be clear, you do not.
If you retire off active duty you have insurance till age 65 when Medicare kicks in. If you retire from a Reserve Component you get insurance from 60-65. There’s some supplemental insurance, Tricare for Life, post 65. After 65 there’s also a really cool international insurance option Tricare for Life Overseas, that provides international insurance where Medicare doesn’t pay. That’s an awesome benefit for retirees who choose to live part/full time internationally. Retirees near bases can also get some free health care on a space available basis through the on base Medical Treatment Facility. It’s good to be a military retiree.
The focus of the VA system is primarily of the “We broke it. We bought it” character. As mentioned there’s some other services possible through the VA outside of that. Full up health insurance for life (to include family) is not one of the benefits of putting on the uniform for a couple years though.
I think you are glossing over the crucial distinction here–leaving the armed forces is not the same as *retiring *from them. Someone who serves for 5 years and leaves is not entitled to much. You have to serve 20 years before you are vested and can retire with the full benefits.
Thanks to everyone for their input. I did speak to the friend this afternoon and she had spoken to her husband last night re how he left. It was the first time she had ever had this specific discussion with him.
He was in the Seal program and got injured and whatever the nature of the injury the Navy said “No more Seals, desk job time” and he apparently put up a fairly big fuss because it had always been his dream to be a Seal and if he couldn’t do that he wanted out. Not sure what went down beyond that, but they somehow accommodated him. It was nominally an honorable separation, but also a “don’t let the door hit you in the ass” separation without benefits.
So … there’s that. Mystery solved.
If you’re honorably discharged, you get your benefits. Assuming he was enlisted, a couple other options are a general discharge (bad), other than honorable (worse), or bad conduct (even worse). Another option is an entry level separation, when someone serves for less than 6 months before being separated for some reason; it’s not characterized as honorable nor dishonorable because the term of service is so short.
Sorry to say but the whole thing, to me, sounds pretty suspect. If your buddy claimed to have been a truck driver or mechanic or armorer or just about any other job I wouldn’t bat an eye, but for some reason there’s a whole lot of “former SEALs” who don’t quite have their story straight about their discharge (see also: Special Forces, Rangers).
Possibly, but he does not bring up or represent himself as a Seal in any social gathering we have ever had so it’s not like he’s trading on it, and he is tall, strong and is in amazing shape for his age so it’s not like him being one would be big stretch as a possibility. The Seal info is just because his wife has mentioned it in the context of his military service he has never made it a thing.
Re the separation you could be correct, but he’s said there’s little to no benefits in the way he left so that’s pretty much a dead end insurance wise for the family.
I’m not ex military but I am 100% disabled per Social Security. I mention this as if you look at me you would think that there is nothing wrong, but I broke my back and am in chronic pain. You can’t judge sometimes disability by looking at them.
That, at least is pretty much par for the course, based on the one former SEAL I know. He’s still in the reserves as a diver, and that’s what he considers himself, and the SEAL stuff only comes up very, very infrequently in terms of “cool weapons” and the like, when that sort of thing comes up.