You can receive up to 10 years of interruptive military service credit toward your Washington state retirement if you left state employment to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. Five of those years are free if you served during a wartime period or when a campaign medal was authorized, and you can purchase five more by paying the required employee contributions. Service credit is one of the factors used to compute state retired pay, so adding credit raises your future retirement benefit. Credit for wartime service has to be requested within five years of returning to your DRS-covered job.
Call the Department of Retirement Systems at 800-547-6657 or 360-664-7000 to claim your interruptive military service credit after you return to state employment.
Your DD214 or orders showing your service dates and the periods served, and your DRS membership information.
