Can I recover the retirement deductions I had in my military pay?

Once I'm out of the military with less than 20 years, how do I go about recovering the payments from each paycheck that went into my retirement fund? Will I get disqualified from social security if I don't request this money before 62?

Public Comments

1. What retirement fund? TSP?
2. If you had any money taken out of your military pay for retirement, that money would be in a TSP (Thrift Savings Plan) account. A TSP account is similar to a civilian 401(k) account. The money is yours, but is subject to the IRS rules that govern the account. Here is a link to nearly all of the information on this: http://www.tsp.gov/uniserv/features/chapter13.html Good luck, and thank you for your service.