One of the great benefits of today’s military is Leave. The Leave program is designed to allow service members to use their authorized leave to the maximum extent possible. The leave program allows service members to relieve the pressure and stress of today’s military duty by being able to spend time with families, take care of emergencies and just relax and recuperate.
There are multiple types of leave service members will come in contact with including:
- Accruing Leave – Service members on active duty earn 30 days of leave a year with pay and allowances at the rate of 2.5 days a month.
- Advance Leave – is chargeable leave granted in anticipation of the accrual of leave during the remaining period of active duty and may be granted for; emergency, urgent personal or moral problems, accession, or PCS (permanent change of station) move.
- Adoption Leave – authorizes service member who adopted a child in a qualifying Adoption agency up to 21 days for non-chargeable leave of absence.
- Block leave – refers to time when most or all of the unit takes leave at the same time. It is commonly allowed during the summer and Christmas holidays, and before and after deployments. This is chargeable leave.
- Convalescent Leave – is non-chargeable absence from duty granted to expedite solder’s return to full duty after illness, injury, or childbirth.
- Emergency Leave – is chargeable leave granted for personal or family emergencies involving the immediate family. Unit commanders approve emergency leave.
- Excess Leave – is non-chargeable absence granted for emergencies or unusual circumstance or as otherwise specified (Note: pay and allowances are collected from Reserve Component soldiers).
- Environmental Moral Leave (EML) programs in Overseas Areas – is a chargeable leave programs established at overseas locations to make use of space-available travel or commercial transportation.
- Ordinary/Regular Leave – Service members can take on the average 30 days of ordinary leave a year.
- Permissive Temporary Duty – is granted for temporary duty away from the normal assigned duties but no additional pay is given.
- Pregnancy Home Leave – is chargeable leave (ordinary, advanced, excess) requested by a service member to return home or another place for maternity care or the birth of a child
- Rest and Recuperation (R&R) Leave – Designated Area – is a chargeable leave program that authorizes us of ordinary leave to allow service members leave away from hostile fire and imminent danger areas.
- Special Leave Accrual – the intent of special leave accrual is to provide relief to solders who are not allowed leave when undergoing lengthy deployment or during periods of hostility
- Terminal leave – Prior to separation or retirement from the military, a member may take the remainder of the leave they have. Once they entered “terminal leave” they would essentially be out of the military, but would still collect a paycheck and other entitlements, such as basic allowance for housing, basic allowance for subsistence and medical coverage until their official separation or retirement date
- Transition Leave (formerly called terminal leave) – is a chargeable leave granted together with transition from the service, including retirement.
Note:
- The leave program is designed to encourage the use of leave as it accrues rather than to accumulate a large leave balance. Soldiers who build their leave balance to the maximum level risk losing their leave should a situation accrue that prevent or delays leave use. Members do not accrue leave when:
- absent from duty without leave
- on excess leave (leave without pay)
- confined as a result of a sentence of a court-martial