eligibility for payments

eligibility for payments Sec. 501. (a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, each member of the Armed Forces who shall have been engaged in active service on or after June 27, 1950, and prior to such date as shall be determined by Presidential proclamation or concurrent resolution of the Congress, and who is discharged or relieved from active service under honorable conditions, shall be eligible to receive mustering-out payment. (b) No mustering-out payment shall be made to— (1) any member of the Armed Forces who, at the time of discharge or relief from active service, is in a pay grade higher than O–3; (2) any member of the Armed Forces who, at the time of discharge or release from active service, is entitled to severance pay or is transferred or returned to the retired list with retired pay, retirement pay, retainer pay, or equivalent pay, or to a status in which he receives such pay: Provided, That this paragraph shall not apply upon retirement or separation pursuant to title IV of the Career Compensation Act of 1949; (3) any member of the Armed Forces for any active service performed prior to the date of his discharge or relief from active service on his own initiative to accept employment or, in the case of any member so relieved from active service, for any active service performed prior to the date of his discharge while in such inactive status, unless he has served outside the continental limits of the United States or in Alaska; (4) any member of the Armed Forces whose total period of service has been as a student assigned by the Armed Forces to a civilian institution for a course of education or training which was substantially the same as established courses offered to civilians; (5) any member of the Armed Forces for any active service performed prior to the date of his discharge from such forces for the purpose of entering the United States Military Academy, the United States Naval Academy, or the United States Coast Guard Academy; 66 Stat. 689 (6) any member of the Armed Forces whose sole service has been as a cadet at the United States Military Academy or the United States Coast Guard Academy, or as a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy, or in a preparatory school after nomination as a principal, alternate, or candidate for admission to any of said Academies; (7) any commissioned officer unless he is discharged or relieved from active service within three years after such date as shall be determined by Presidential proclamation or concurrent resolution of the Congress; and (8) any member of the Armed Forces who is ordered to active service for the sole purpose of training duty or a physical examination, or for a period of less than sixty days. (c) A member of the Armed Forces who is eligible to receive mustering-out payments under this title and under the Mustering-Out payment Act of 1944 for the same period of active service shall elect to receive such payment either under this title or such Act, but shall not be entitled to payment under both provisions of law.