Generally; Disability; USFSPA
 

Military personnel are eligible to receive retirement pay if he or she served for 20 years or longer. Personnel who began service before August 1, 1986, can collect benefits equal to 50% of pay. This percentage increases with each year served, and at 30 years of service he or she can collect 75% of pay. Personnel who began service on or after August 1, 1986, can retire with 40% of pay, and at 30 years of service can collect 75% of pay.
 
If the military member is disabled, he or she will be eligible for disability pay. If the military member is terminated involuntarily due to a reduction in force, he will be eligible for a lump-sum payment, the size of which depends on the number of years served. If the military member is voluntarily terminated because of a reduction in force, he will receive an annuity for a number of years, again depending on the number of years served on active duty.
 
Most of the pension protections for military ex-spouses were established through the Uniformed Services Former Spouses Protection Act of 1982 (USFSPA). This law was passed to overrule a United States Supreme Court 1981 case, McCarty v. McCarty, holding that military retired pay could not be treated as marital property in divorce. USFSPA allows a state divorce court to award a share of a member’s pay as marital property.
 
USFSPA generally permits, but does not require, a state court to award a share of retired pay.  The treatment of military retired pay differs from state to state. In most community property states (Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin), a portion of the military spouse’s retired pay will be considered the property of both spouses, and the non-military spouse will be entitled to one-half of that portion. The portion will generally be based on the number of years of marriage during which the retired pay was earned, divided by the total years of service. If the spouses were married for at least ten years while the member was on active duty, the non-military spouse will qualify for direct enforcement, which means that his or her portion of the retired pay will be paid to him or her directly by the military finance office.
  
Most non-community property states will award a portion of the retired pay to the non-military spouse. A few states treat military retired pay as the property only of the military person. But usually in those states, the judge must consider the retired pay received by the military spouse when setting the amount of alimony.
 
 
Military Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP)
 

Survivor Benefit Plan benefits are available to the spouse or former spouse of any retiring member. Under the Survivor Benefit Plan, a retiring member's spouse will be enrolled automatically for survivor benefits unless the member and the spouse agree in writing to reduce or waive the coverage. Full survivor benefits equal 55% of the gross retired pay until age 62, at which time the benefits drop, due to an offset for Social Security benefits received by the survivor. The cost of the coverage is generally 6.5% of retired pay, with certain adjustments made for retirees who receive less than $720 in retire¬ment pay per month. When a retired military member divorces, he or she is required to notify the appropriate Finance Center handling pay for that branch of the military. The military will terminate the coverage under SBP, and the military member will receive a refund for all payments made for coverage since the divorce. If the military member remarries, the new spouse will become automatically covered after one year of marriage. A special rule allows the retiree to reinstate a former spouse (and minor children) as beneficiaries, if both spouses sign a reinstatement application and submit it to the appropriate Finance Center within one year of the date of divorce. Similarly, an active duty member may agree to name an ex-spouse as beneficiary of the SBP when he or she retires. Both spouses must sign a written notarized agreement and incorporate it into the divorce decree.
 
 
Medical, Commissary, and Exchange Privileges

Full medical, commissary, and exchange privileges are available to an ex-spouse if the military member served 20 years, and the spouses were married for 20 years while the member was on active duty. If the military member served 20 years and the spouses were married for 20 years, but the member was on active duty only 15 to 19 of those years during the marriage, the ex-spouse will be entitled only to medical care for a limited period of time (with certain exceptions for divorces finalized before April 1, 1985). After that limited time, the spouse will have 90 days to enroll in a group health plan estab¬lished by the Department of Defense. If he or she remarries, all privileges are lost. A divorced spouse is not entitled to medical, commissary, or exchange privileges if the marriage lasted less than 20 years or the military spouse served fewer than 20 years.