It's a frustrating fact of life that winning fixes to major compensation inequities often takes years. But sometimes interim improvements introduce new issues that change the nature of the inequity or the way we think about the solution.

The Pentagon's recent implementation of the newly authorized Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC) for certain retirees with combat- or operations-related disabilities illustrates this problem. CRSC offers a functional equivalent of concurrent receipt of retired pay and Veterans Affairs (VA) disability compensation for retirees who have either a disability associated with a Purple Heart (10 percent or higher) or combat- or operations-related disability rated 60 percent or higher.

But CRSC has an important wrinkle. The Defense Department's general counsel has ruled it's tax-free.

That's actually a better deal than many qualifying retirees would have received if real concurrent receipt legislation had been enacted. Concurrent receipt bills H.R. 303 and S. 392, long supported by MOAA and other military and veterans organizations, would restore qualifying members' full nondisability retired pay in addition to their VA disability compensation. Nondisability retired pay is fully taxable.

This raises a question. Should we change our goal and seek CRSC eligibility for all disabled retirees, or should we continue pursuing traditional concurrent receipt bills and seek to grandfather tax-free CRSC payments to qualifying combat-disabled retirees, if those bills are successful?

For the short term, our assessment is to pursue the latter course. Concurrent receipt bills have been pushed too hard for too long, and we've won too many House and Senate cosponsors to expect Congress to change direction on short notice. Legislative momentum is like the proverbial aircraft carrier that takes a while to turn. This is not the time to gamble on a new strategy and risk stalling the momentum we've accumulated with years of strenuous effort.

Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF-Ret., director of MOAA government relations