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High Year Tenure (HYT) Waiver Process

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1. Recent changes to the High Year Tenure (HYT) waiver process timeline at the E6-E8 level for fiscal year 2016 are too short. This change has caused extremely compressed timelines for members to make the necessary preparations after they have been identified for mandatory retirement. It has also led to uncertainty months into the assignment year for units with HYT candidates. The Coast Guard needs to expand the E6-E8 HYT waiver timeline to align with the E3-E5 HYT waiver timeline. 2. HYT was reintroduced in 2013 in accordance with ref (a) due to extremely high retention rates, above 94 percent, and an overall reduction in the number of Coast Guard billets due to budget cuts. These two factors directly impacted enlisted advancement and the …show more content…

Aligning the E6-E8 waiver process with the E3-E5 waiver process will better serve the needs of the members being reviewed. Under the current timeline members only have four months from the time they are notified that they must retire to their required retirement date of 1 September. If members are planning their terminal leave out they could be on terminal leave by late May, only a month after being notified. This timeline gives members limited time to complete the required Transition Goals, Plan, Succeed (TGPS) course and set up with the Veterans Administration including review of their medical records. It also shortens the time they have to plan for a career after the Coast Guard. The argument will be made that members identified as HYT candidates should start planning well in advance for the possibility that their waiver will be denied. The counter argument is they are being required to do a lot of extra work that may be unnecessary if their waiver is granted. Moving the timeline to align with the E3-E5s in November will alleviate that extra work as well as give them four more months to plan if their waiver is denied. There is a tremendous amount of stress that is put on a member going through the HYT process. The Coast Guard making a decision on waivers earlier and members being told their fate sooner will help alleviate some of that …show more content…

Over the course of the past three years there have been multiple changes to the HYT process. These include phasing in PGPs and extensive changes to the waiver process. There may be resistance to a sense of need for yet another change. This proposal is fairly simple to incorporate but will have great benefits to smoothing out the process and will not add any cost to the service. It will benefit the members by removing uncertainty in their future earlier and give them more time to plan for retirement. It will benefit units by completing the waiver process before the assignment slating process so they can better communicate the units needs with the detailers. It will benefit the detailers by providing a clearer picture of what billets need to be filled as well as advancement needs before the start of slating and the advancement year. The Coast Guard needs to expand the E6-E8 HYT waiver timeline to align with the E3-E5 HYT waiver

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