How long do you serve in the military until retirement?

Is it only 20 years? Do you have to serve in that same exact military branch or can you change. For example, 10 years Navy and another 10 years in the Marines.

Public Comments

1. 20 Years
2. It's actually 30 years. But you can end it at 20 (active) and go to the inactive reserves -- which is what I did. As for having to stay only in one branch, you CAN move around, it's all cumulative.
3. The only way to get accurate answers is to talk to a recruiter.
4. 20 years is the earliest you can retire however there are special circumstances. Some people opt to stay in past that up to 30 yrs. You don't have to stay in the same branch. Lots of people cross from green to blue (Army to AF). The AF take better care of their people. Most times when you do that, the military takes one pay grade.
5. no, you can serve in any branch, it's all federal time. think about it, is it not the same government? does not even have to be millitary, there are other branches of the government ie,postal , fbi , osi, and so on and so forth
6. Do what they will let ya do as far as changing branches. There is a gimmick-- you must be discharged before entering the other branch for 24 hours. The other branch may not reinlist you for any number of reasons... Your rank may start over as E3. You may have been E6. Big pay loss... Pick a branch and stick to it......
7. 30 years for me, but I loved it ,
8. They now allow you for enlisted to stay in 40 years doing this you will get 100% of your base pay. The max cut off used to be 29 and the min still is 20. The did this since recruiting is low. You can cross over into different branches. If you start out in the Marines first you won't have to attend any other branch of service's boot camp. Now if you go reserve during your time and then go active duty then your time of service is counted differently. If you have a total time of service of 20 years and out of the 20 years 2 of it was reserve time then you wouldn't be able to retire just yet. Hope this was what you were looking for.
9. 20 years, but you can serve for 30 years depending on your rank and conduct in the U S Military. You can serve 10 years in one military branch and 10 years in another if you so desire, but the U S Military would really rather have you serve in only one branch. It is better that way.