2018 US Code
Title 10 - Armed Forces
Subtitle C - Navy and Marine Corps
Part II - Personnel
Chapter 841 - Voluntary Retirement
Sec. 8321 - Officers: 40 years

(a) Each officer of the Regular Navy or the Regular Marine Corps holding a permanent appointment in the grade of warrant officer, W–1, or above who applies for retirement after completing 40 or more years of active service shall be retired by the Secretary of the Navy.

(b) For the purpose of this section, an officer's years of active service are computed by adding all his active service in the armed forces.

(Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 393, §6321; renumbered §8321, Pub. L. 115–232, div. A, title VIII, §807(b)(15), Aug. 13, 2018, 132 Stat. 1836.)

In subsection (a) the words "Regular" and "holding a permanent appointment in the grade of warrant officer, W–1, or above" are inserted for clarity. The word "shall" is substituted for the word "may" because the Attorney General has construed R.S. 1443 as conferring a right to retirement upon officers who apply for it after 40 years of service (30 Op. Atty. Gen. 406). The words "from active service" are omitted as surplusage. The words "after completing 40 or more years of active service" are substituted for the words "has been forty years in the service of the United States" for clarity.

In subsection (b) the accepted meaning of the words "service of the United States" is spelled out for clarity. They have been consistently interpreted to include active service in the armed forces as defined in this title.

2018—Pub. L. 115–232 renumbered section 6321 of this title as this section.

Amendment by Pub. L. 115–232 effective Feb. 1, 2019, with provision for the coordination of amendments and special rule for certain redesignations, see section 800 of Pub. L. 115–232, set out as a note preceding section 3001 of this title.