10 U.S.C. § 8914
Section 8914 · Twenty to thirty years: enlisted members
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 29 court decisions — leading case Kirby v. United States (1973)
Most recently applied in United States v. Johnson (June 2017)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Under regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Air Force, an enlisted member of the Air Force who has at least 20, but less than 30, years of service computed under section 8925 of this title may, upon his request, be retired.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
10:948a. Oct. 6, 1945, ch. 393, §4 (1st sentence); restated Aug. 10, 1946, ch. 952, §6(a) (1st sentence), 60 Stat. 996. Aug. 10, 1946, ch. 952, §7, 60 Stat. 996. The words “now or hereafter”, in 10:948a, are omitted as surplusage. The words “computed under section 8925 of this title” are substituted for the words “active Federal service”, in 10:948, and “active Federal military service”, in 10:948a, since that revised section makes explicit the service covered. The words “be retired from” are substituted for the words “will be placed on the retired list of”, in 10:948. The words “completed a minimum”, in 10:948; and “the period of”, “be subject to”, “period of”, and “now or after August 10, 1946”, in 10:948a; are omitted as surplusage.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–337 struck out at end “A regular enlisted member then becomes a member of the Air Force Reserve. A member retired under this section shall perform such active duty as may be prescribed by law until his service computed under section 8925 of this title, plus his inactive service as a member of the Air Force Reserve, equals 30 years.”
1980—Pub. L. 96–343 struck out “regular” before “enlisted members” in section catchline and substituted in text “an enlisted member” for “a regular enlisted member”, “A regular enlisted member” for “He”, and “Air Force Reserve. A member retired under this section” for “Air Force, and”.
Effective Date of 1980 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 96–343 effective with respect to retired pay payable for months beginning after Sept. 8, 1980, see section 9(c) of Pub. L. 96–343, set out as a note under section 3914 of this title.
Temporary Early Retirement Authority
For provisions authorizing the Secretary of the Air Force, during the period beginning Oct. 23, 1992, and ending Oct. 1, 1995, to apply this section to an enlisted member with at least 15 but less than 20 years of service by substituting “at least 15” for “at least 20”, see section 4403 of Pub. L. 102–484, set out as a note under section 1293 of this title.