ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. - To enable civilian employees declining a transfer of function from Fort Monmouth to Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), Md., to apply for retirement and severance pay benefits as soon as possible, the projected date for beginning to issue separation notices to those personnel has been moved up from June 15, 2011, to January 18, 2011. However, all those personnel are still entitled to continue to serve and to remain on the rolls until the closure of Fort Monmouth on Sept 15, 2011, if they so desire.

That decision was announced Thursday, Dec. 9, by senior leaders of Army command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) organizations

slated to complete their relocations from Fort Monmouth to APG by Sept.15, 2011, as part of the implementation of 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) legislation. Those C4ISR organizations include CECOM; the Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center; and Army Program Executive Offices for Command, Control and Communications Systems-Tactical and for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors as well as the CECOM Contracting Center.

"We've said from the beginning of this relocation and Fort Monmouth closure process that taking care of all of our employees and giving them as many options and opportunities as possible is one of our primary goals and we're fulfilling that promise with this decision and action", said Maj. Gen. Randolph P. Strong, Fort Monmouth's senior commander.

The decision allows those employees eligible for discontinued service retirement and severance pay the decision-making flexibility to begin their job search process earlier and to plan to depart earlier if they so choose without risking their eligibility for those benefits, Strong explained.

Discontinued service retirement provides an immediate annuity for employees who are separated from federal service involuntarily because of organizational actions such as a transfer of function which they've declined. It's designed to lessen the impact of an involuntary separation on a long-service employee, CECOM Human Resources officials said.

To be eligible for discontinued service retirement, an employee must be at least 50-years-old with at least 20 years of federal service or any age with at least 25 years of federal service.

Severance pay for federal employees consists of one week's basic pay for each year of civilian federal service up through 10 years plus two weeks' basic pay for each year of service beyond 10 years. Additionally, an age adjustment allowance of 2.5 percent is added for each full quarter of a year an individual is over 40 years of age.

The maximum amount of severance pay is one year's salary. This maximum is a lifetime limitation meaning federal severance pay previously received is taken into account in applying the limit.