I took a three year assignment overseas (Sep 2007 - Sep 2010). My UPT ADSC was up in Jan 08. However, I took TA which extended my ADSC to Dec 09. Can anyone shed some light on what takes precedence: my ADSC of Dec 09 or my DEROS of Sep 2010? The MPF weenies can't seem to give me a straight answer. Am I locked in until 2010 or can I pull the trump card in Dec 2009? Thanks.

 

every pcs incurs a commitment. 24 months for conus i believe, 36 for overseas. technically, you are locked in, but you can still palace chase and get out early, if approved.
so you took a 3yr assignment and didnt sign the bonus?

 

30mm,

Are you at Spang? I just Palace Chase'd from Pope. As far as your question goes, I think your PCS is considered just like the UPT ADSC, but I'm not positive. The Palace Chase office told me last summer that if you have a year or less of your commitment left, that you are pretty much automatically approved. This was both prior to submitting and after they approved my application. It all really depends on the timing (trying to cut end strength numbers, VSP, etc), so I guess you never know what they will decide to do tomorrow.

 

You owe the AF until your LATEST commitment, whether it's from pilot training, or taking education benefits, or overseas PCS is irrelavant.

Palace Chase isn't as open as it once was. It depends on your overall career field and year group numbers.

About me: I had a Dec 07 UPT commitment and a May 08 PCS commitment. I'm in until May 08. Last October, I got hired by Continental and they wanted me to start ASAP. I talked to a reserve recruiter and found that Palace Chase wasn't that much of a realisitc option for me. The reason is because I learned that there was very little possibility of my name making it onto the scroll list and making a seamless transition from Active Duty to AFRES with only 1.5 months to get all the paperwork done. Apparently the scroll process can take a couple months, and I couldn't really afford to have a lengthy delay betwen active duty and reserves (primarily because of Continental's lack of healthcare for new hires ). Additionally, I think there's some sort of additional waiver required if you attempt to Palace Chase with less than 6 months of ADSC left.

I also tried to get a 3 month ADSC waiver so that I could take terminal leave and still start an airline job in January, and it was very quickly disapproved at the Wing level after we learned that it was a SecAf waiver and not an AFPC waiver.

My OG and Wing Commanders were pretty open about talking about all of this and reviewing my options. Unfortunately, they wouldn't support both getting out early AND taking my 60+ days of terminal leave. I'm going to Continental, so starting training while on terminal leave is a HUGE consideration for me (medical coverage), so in the end I just kept my May DOS and hoarded all of my terminal leave. In fact, I start terminal leave next week and I start CAL training in March.

Hopefully this helps you out. I found that the reserve recruiter was very knowledgable, but the Amn (and even MSgts and Capts) at MPF were next to worthless... I knew more about their AFIs than they did, but that's another story.
Riddler

 

Riddler,
I think I asked you this in another thread, but I'll ask again. I ended up doing Palace Front as well. Did you get any PTDY at all? I know you don't get the 20 days associated with a retiree or invol sep, but how about the 10 days for "house hunting" since you are getting an assignment, be it reserve. Seems fair, doesn't it?

 

By the way, to piggy back on what's been said. I read and re-read the "Separating Commissioned Officers" AFI over and over. No one cares about your separation or issues like you do, I've learned. That's just the way it is.

 

I did the palace front gig a few months ago...I did not get house hunting. I even looked up the reg myself (can't remember which one, though).

 

what reg is that btw?

 

Air Force Instruction 36-3207

 

Your ADSC is your ADSC. That is the date you are eligible to be out. If you had incurred a longer ADSC for your PCS, then it would show up later on your VMPF. DEROS applies only if you are staying in.