What recruiter told me

Editorial Team / Moderator · May 14, 2017

Hello all,
I know I have mentioned this on my previous post, but I just want to know what you guys think. A little background. I have been a nurse for 10 years with ICU experience. I spoke to a recruiter regarding going in to the AF. He told me I will come in as a captain with 7 years of service. The responses I got from the post is that the 7 years is an evaluation of my civilian experience and I will come in with 0 years of service. So I asked my recruiter to clarify and he told me that the 7 years in service does count towards my time in the military, as I will come in already with 7 years instead of 0 years. I'm confuse. This is a dumb question and I apology, but do recruiters still lie to new recruits? Or is it true what he told me? PLEASE help.

It counts as far as constructive credit toward rank, but not towards retirement. I think you two are speaking the same language but not understanding what each other is saying. Did you specifically ask if you could retire in 13 years? That will be the kicker. What he is talking about is adjusting your date of rank. It's not the same thing as what you are thinking, which would be adjusting your initial entry date into the service. That can't change, it is what it is.

They are not desperate enough for nurses to tell tall tales; quite the opposite. As long as you are working with an AMEDD recruiter, that is. Sometimes those strip mall recruiters tell tales because they don't have any clue how things work on the officer side of the house!

jeckrn, BSN, RN · May 14, 2017

Your pay will also be starting at under 2 years, not over 6 years.

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · May 14, 2017

Yeah, your 7 years count towards your rank and time in grade. They do not count towards your years of federal service, which is the determining factor for retirement. 10 years should only get you 5 years of credit, unless you have an MSN. An MSN gets 2 additional years of credit. Full time RN experience is credited at 50%.

If this is done correctly, your comissioning paperwork will have your rank listed as a Captain with 3 years of time in grade (4+3). The way the AF handles this is that they would back date your date of rank (DOR) 3 years. If you start training on Jan 1, 2018, your grade would be O-3 and your DOR would read Jan 1, 2015. Your pay date would still be Jan 1, 2018; this means you can retire Jan 1, 2038.

This situation put you at a tremendous disadvantage for promotion in my opinion. You will be in the zone for promotion to Major (O-4) after just 3 years, which is somewhat competitive. You will be playing quite a bit of catch-up.

ggoodman · May 23, 2017

I don't understand why this would put the OP at a disadvantage for promotion

jeckrn, BSN, RN · May 24, 2017

I don't understand why this would put the OP at a disadvantage for promotion

They would not have the military leadership experiences or evaluations as other nurses would have going up to the board. Only having 2 evals or 3 at best would not show the potential this officer does or does not have.