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SSGWife  ,

I am offering a few suggestions or bits of information that might help.

Your husband's previous retirement appears to have been a Ch 61 retirement with less than 20 years of service.  This retirement, if less than VA disability, would all be foregone for the disability pay and would not qualify for restoration under CRDP.

However, a retirement from the Guard/Reserve based on 20 "good years" and upon reaching age 60 is considered a length of service (LOS) retirement and is eligible for restoration of retired pay under CRDP.  (I the term Guard/Reserve in the following since the service is not clearly identified and they are similar)

If your husband actually qualified for retired pay at age 60 he should have received from the military what is called a '20 year letter' when he attained that status.  A Guard/Reservist earns points, which translate to days, for performing certain activities.  Any year when the points total 50 or more is considered a 'good' year.  Any time spent in active service is credited a point per day and the years count toward the 20 when they qualify.

If he in fact qualifies for a Guard/Reserve retirement he should apply and by changing retirement status would have all retired pay restored since he has 100% disability.  He will NOT have his VA disability affected by receiving military retired pay.

If not eligible for the Guard/Reserve retirement he will continue with the medical retirement and under present laws will continue to forfeit the retired pay due to the VA disability pay.

If it should apply there is a possibility that some part of a medical retirement can be restored if the service connected disability is approved as combat related under CRSC by the individual's branch of service.  This can get to be a little involved when determining but worth considering if it possibly would apply.

My spouse and I sometimes solve the privacy issue by my initiating the contact, establishing my  identity, and giving permission for her to obtain the information.

SSGWife79,

I am not clear about exactly the status of your husband's military retirement situation but will point out one other point to consider.  It is most likely that a total (100%) disability would have required the complete waiver of a standard reserve retirement 20 years ago because there was no provision for restoring any withhold from retired pay before 2003/4.  If they were talking about the receipt of retired pay at age 60 it would have been a 20 year Guard/Reserve retirement.  That type of retirement would not have been technically given-up at that time but would have been withheld when it became payable.  Since 2004 it can now be restored under CRDP.

If the retirement was granted due to the a service disability (not the VA disability) then CRDP would not apply.

I do not understand why he would have been told that he was giving-up a Reserve retirement in 1992 that would not become effective until 20 years later.  A reservist is only eligible for retirement after 20 good years but is not formally retired until age 60.  Until that time they are in somewhat of a state of limbo.

I think you need to determine the specific nature of the retirement  that was involved in the 1992 action.  Once you know this you should know where you stand.  The DD 214s will only have been issued at the conclusion of periods of active service but may give a clue to finding other records.