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<p>As a point of clarification, your time at the Academy does not count in any way towards retirement. Furthermore, when you hit 20 years, the time does not count retro-actively (i.e. you need to 20 years to qualify for retirement, but when you hit the 20 years you jump to 24 years due to time at the Academy). </p>
<p>Its one of those anomalies of the military retirement program in which you are technically on active duty, but because of some magical flick of the wand, it does not count as “active duty.” To the point where when I fill out any paperwork or tell someone how long I’ve been in the Navy, I just say 3 years. In this respect I’m no different than my ROTC brothers, however its the priors who are at the real disadvantage. In many of the officer programs for prior enlisted, the enlisted members get to play college students for four years, with little responsibility to the military. I’m not saying that theres anything wrong with that, its a good deal, but all their time at college counts. Take the prior enlisted at the Academy, and they basically get a 4 year hole in their service record when it comes to retirement compensation.</p>