What is the difference between retirement and administrative separation?

• A. Retirement is leaving service with eligibility for retired pay after meeting service time; administrative separation is a non-retirement discharge for performance, misconduct, or medical reasons.
• B. Retirement means automatic promotion.
• C. Administrative separation is retirement for medical reasons only.
• D. Both are the same thing.

Answer: (A)

The main idea being tested is how a service member leaves the military and what benefit follows. Retirement means leaving after meeting required years of service (and any age criteria) and being eligible for retired pay. It is an entitlement that provides ongoing pay after you exit the service. Administrative separation, by contrast, is a discharge from the military for reasons tied to performance, misconduct, or medical fitness that do not grant retired pay as a retirement benefit. In other words, retirement is an exit with eligibility for retirement pay; administrative separation is an exit for cause that ends service without such pay. Some medical outcomes can lead to a medical retirement, which is still retirement with pay, but medical separation for fitness issues is not retirement. The other options don’t fit because automatic promotion isn’t what retirement recognizes, and administrative separation isn’t retirement for medical reasons only, nor are they the same thing.