***IN PROCESS***

You did it. You joined the military one way or another. You served in one way or another, and for whatever reason, your time in the military is done. 

Thank you.

Here I will highlight the steps in the process and, as always, highlight my feelings one way or another. I am writing this in DEC025, so please keep that in mind if you are reading this far in the future. This will NOT cover retirement, which has a few extra perks that you can read about elsewhere. 

A quick definition explanation off the top. You will see two terms used interchangeably in the military: REFRAD and UQR. REFRAD stands for REquest For Release from Active Duty, and UQR stands for Unqualified Resignation. The difference lies in you UQR when you are separating from the military entirely. You REFRAD when you are changing from Active Duty to something else. These are functionally equivalent for all HPSP folks EXCEPT those of you who did a 3-year residency or took less than a 4-year scholarship. You see, taking up a commission entails an 8-year Military Service Obligation (MSO) in one way or another. If you took a 4-year scholarship, did a Family Medicine residency, and served for 4 years, that only makes 7 total years. In this case, your Active Duty Service Obligation (ADSO) is complete, but your 8-year MSO is ongoing. Therefore, you would REFRAD into the IRR, which is essentially where you were in med school. Technically, you can be called to active duty from IRR status. Is it common? Nah. But it's possible...

And yes, I know I am supposed to spell-out single-digit numbers, but I am throwing a lot of numbers around on this page and it is easier to read that way, ok???

12-24 Months From Separation

You need a job. It feels a bit backwards to start at the end, but chronologically, this is how it plays out. Civilian employers are hiring 2nd year residents in FOUR-YEAR PROGRAMS. It feels crazy, but that's how it is. I interviewed for the job I ended up taking after residency, 18 months before my separation date. 

I am not going to pretend to be an expert on job hunting, but here are some gems I picked up along the way:

Update your CV

Not only update it, but translate it from Army to human-speak. No one knows what a Battalion Surgeon is. 

2) Assuming you already have a location in mind, start browsing the generic job websites: Jobs.com, Google Jobs, Indeed, Ziprecruiter, etc. 

Get a feel for what the salaries are looking like for your specialty in your area. Ask ChatGPT or your preferred AI companion for some comps. You can get LinkedIn Premium for 12 months free as a separating servicemember.

AVOID applying through these generic application websites. I'm fairly certain that a large number of job listings on these are fake and are just stealing your information from your CV. Most of the job listings I saw had contact information for the respective positions/companies listed. In my case, I discovered that my future employer had their own website for job applications, so I bypassed the 3rd party site entirely.. 

Consider being a government civilian. The main perk here is getting to "buy back" your military years of service in Federal employment years to get a retirement that way. I was offered a job at a VA facility, and the pay wasn't terrible, but apart from the lower pay and WAYYY lower signing bonus that I needed for a down payment on a house, you cannot take on a federal employment job while still on active duty. Normally, you can start working your next job while on terminal leave, but that is not the case here. Because my deployment went into the fiscal year I separated, I rolled over a TON of leave and ended up with 108 days of terminal leave. That gave me time for a 2-week vacation before starting my civilian job and then THREE MONTHS OF DOUBLE SALARY. 

So not only did the VA pay less, have a signing bonus that was about $90k lower than the civilian job, it would have cost me 3 months of potential income, which for a Family Med doc is somewhere between $60-90k!

I am buying an expensive doctor house, so I really needed that extra cash upfront.

Start Complaining

The best day to have gotten your aches and pains documented was yesterday; the next best time is today! If you intend on submitting a VA disability claim (discussed later), it is important to demonstrate chronicity of your issues and the degree to which you have attempted to remedy them. 

18 Months From Separation

Start the Transition Assistance Program (TAP). This program MUST be started before you hit 12 months out. It is a lot of time with very little benefit for you, since it was not made for you. It was made for individuals who do not have a terminal degree and need to figure out how to get a real job in the real world. There are different tiers that allow you to do less in this program based on your educational background, but it is still a lot. 

I was lucky, in a sense, in that I was deployed when I started TAP. That helps in that for those deployed or stationed in specific locations, you are eligible for virtual TAP classes, which saves a TON of time. 

There is some valuable information thrown in there, so don't sleep through it all. 

Get started here: https://www.dodtap.mil/dodtap/app/home

13 Months From Separation

That is not a typo. You are able to submit your REFRAD/UQR packet no earlier than 12 months from the end of your Active Duty Service Obligation (ADSO). 

This packet sucks.

You need to get a counseling statement from everyone and their mother that you have been advised on how cool the military is and that leaving is scary.

Practically, that means a statement from your Battalion Commander, Brigade Commander, an O-6 in the Medical Corps (if that is not your Brigade commander), your installation's Army Reserve counselor, a memo from you stating you don't have any more ADSO, a memo from you of your formal resignation, and a memo from SHARP that you don't have any pending cases (that you have filed, not against you).

Your S1 should have templates for all of the above memos, but it is still super tedious and a pain in the butt.

All of this will easily take a few weeks to put together, so I recommend 13 months out. You're welcome.

12 Months From Separation

The moment of truth. You've completed your TAP (or at least started), got all of your memos signed (and put them all into a single PDF), and you're ready to fire up IPPS-A and submit your REFRAD/UQR.

Do it. 

Sweet. Now that that's done (and kicked back, and resigned, and resubmitted; repeat ad nauseum), you're onto the easy part: waiting for your separation orders, prepping your VA disability claim (discussed later), and planning your CSP.

Career Skills Program (CSP)

What is the CSP? This, like the TAP, is a program not made for you - it is for the 21-year-old PFC who does not have a marketable skill/education that translates well into the real world. It allows you to essentially intern for a business/company to gain skills and hopefully employment in that business/company after you get out. You essentially go on admin leave and work in the civilian world. The main caveat is that you cannot be compensated by the business/company as you are still collecting your Army salary.

Although the CSP was not made for you, it does not mean you cannot take advantage! While in early 2025, they nerfed this benefit for officers from 120 days to only 60 for an O-4 (which you should be after six years on active duty), this is still great! Combining this with terminal leave, you can functionally get out of the Army up to five months before your ADSO date!

Now, I have heard of docs getting away with some crazy stuff as a CSP like cooking classes and the like. I considered some broadening positions like working with a radiologist or ultrasound tech, but since I already had a job lined up, I figured I'd get ahead with that. I wanted to send off my unit in a good position, so I opted for a 30-day CSP and will essentially be a med student in the clinic where I will soon be an attending. Learning a new EMR and new systems/processes in a lower-stress environment was a valuable opportunity for me!

The CSP has to be started/completed within the last 6 months of your service, but you can get it approved within the last 12. 

Reach out to your local CSP office to get started!

Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD)

When it comes to filing a disability claim with the Department of Veteran's Affairs (VA), you can technically do this at any point after you separate from service - you can make a claim 50 years later if you choose. A better idea is to do the legwork early so that on the day you leave active duty service, you are provided with the benefits you deserve.

At exactly 180 days from your ADSO date, you can submit your VA disability request. Your BDD claim MUST be submitted by 90 days from your separation date to ensure benefits start (or are at least backdated to) your separation date. 

Now, I am not going to get into using a VSO (Veterans Service Organization) to submit your claim or not. Generally, as a doctor, you should know enough to be able to adequately spell out your issues and complete the necessary paperwork to get an appropriate compensation from the VA. You'll find that a number of people "know a guy who got me 90% for my back." I say good for them. I've read the VA literature, which is freely available on the internet, so I had a strong feeling I knew what my disability percentage was going to be and that was good enough for me.

A key part of this process is collecting your medical records. Collect all of your relevant records from your installation's medical records department AND from any civilian medical care you have received. When you go to medical records, beg them to get your records digitally. That will make your life so much easier for two reasons:

1) You can submit everything on the BDD portal much easier, and 2) You can ask an AI friend to help. 

Asking an AI friend for help comes into play when you are composing your medical history for your claim. I HIGHLY recommend you consolidate all of your medical conditions, write a narrative describing the CODIERS/OPQRST of all of your conditions, and noting all of the dates of your appointments. This will help both with adding your conditions on the BDD portal as well as when you go for your VA disability examination. Now, I spent 4 hours on a road trip writing up all of my medical history based on my records. I later threw all of my records into NotebookLM and asked it to write up all of my conditions and dates of treatment. MY GOODNESS. 2 minutes later, I had an incredible composition of all of my medical history that was easy to read and share.

You may want to carefully consider what personal information you feed to our future robot overlords, but I have already accepted my fate.

So, I submitted my BDD claim and waited to be contacted by one of the 3rd-party examination services the VA contracts to conduct its disability examinations.

Plan your terminal leave

At this point, you should be able to work backwards and figure out how much terminal leave you plan on taking. This will help with your CSP and final out planning, later. 

6 Months From Separation

At this point, it's cake:

Drop that BDD claim!

Hit up your local transition office for their process to get your separation orders.

Start your CSP.

3-6 Months From Separation

Get your orders and set up your final PCS.

For your final move, the military will move you as far as wherever your PLEAD is (Please Entering Active Duty). 

For this one, I had the brilliant idea to try a self-move for the first time. My family keeps a relatively minimal home aesthetic compared to other people I've come across in life, but hot damn did it take a crazy long period of time to pack up all of our stuff. Was weeks of packing and unpacking worth it to make an extra $8k? Probably...