Former or present, military or civilian-if you are counting on money or benefits in the future from uncle sugar or your company then you haven't been paying attention during the last decade. Never accept a vague promise for future payment in lieu of known current payments into your account(not accepting what has turned out to be a mythical A plan, union health benefits or failing social security would have saved us all a lot of pain).
This concept of defering pay for an unsecured promise of benefits later has not proven itself a winning strategy.