Leave (U.S. military)

In the United States Military, leave is permission to be away from one's unit for a specific period of time.

Under normal circumstances, all personnel are granted 30 days of leave per year. This time is usually used for vacations and other extended time periods away from the service that are longer than three days or need to be taken in the middle of the week. Leave is accumulated at the rate of 2.5 days per month. A member's leave is annotated in the monthly Leave and Earnings Statement.

Under 5 U.S.C. §6323(a)(1), federal employees who are reservists are allowed “15 days” of annual paid leave for reserve or National Guard training. Prior to 2000, the Justice Department, as had other federal agencies, included days employees were not scheduled to work but would be at reserve training when calculating how much leave an employee used. This miscalculation resulted in the Federal Appeal of Butterbaugh v. Department of Justice, 336 F.3d 1332 (Fed. Cir. 2003). The Butterbaugh Decision changed things for these reservists and would result in many more federal employees finding their reservist time wrongly charged.

Leave and passes are terms to describe days off work. A typical weekend day off is also known as a regular pass. Up to four consecutive days off can be either leave days or pass days. Leave days are deducted from the servicemember's 30 annual days off. Pass days are not deducted. Five or more days off must be deducted as leave. Leave and pass days can now be taken consecutively, as long as the Service Member is in the local area to sign back in from or on leave; for example, a SM may put in for a 4-day pass over the 4th of July weekend, and leave starting the day after the 4-day weekend, as long as the soldier personally signs in or out on leave.

If leave is taken through a weekend, Saturday and Sunday are also deducted as leave days. For example, a servicemember who takes leave from Thursday to the following Tuesday will be deducted six days of leave for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.

Passes can also be awarded to servicemembers for particular achievements. Although passes may be taken for up to 4 days, 3 day passes are granted on most occasions. When 3 day passes are awarded, they are most commonly taken over a weekend giving the servicemember one duty day off. Whereas, there is a process in getting a Leave Pass for the Service Member which will be charged by the Department.

One or two day passes can also be granted for exceptional circumstances during the duty week; for example, a Service Member can be given a pass for a Wednesday in order to accompany their several children for school physicals, or a Wednesday-Thursday if the Service Member is having to travel overnight for an appointment or event.

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