How does Leave work?

[Alex's Girl]

Hi all-

My boyfriend (currently in OCS), has 60 days of leave added up. Once he gets his orders for his sea tours, how often will he be able to take leave?

Thanks guys!

[Anti M]

He will be able to take leave when the ship's operating schedule permits.  Since he has 60 days, he must take some soon, or lose it at the start of the new FY, unless his command authorizes the paperwork to let him either sell it back or accrue some more.  

  No way to tell "how often" as none of us can know a ship's schedule very far in advance.  Normally they are allowed to take time right before and right after a deployment, or while they are in their homeport, depending  on what the command needs them to do workwise.  He will probably get time between OCS and reporting to his first ship, it is common to take leave while en route between commands.   Doubtful they will let him take more than a couple weeks though.  

[Emily-aaronsgirl11]

You take it whenever you can get it. I thought this was a silly motto before my husband got to his first sea command... and then I understood. 

They generally get two weeks leave before and after deployment like Anti M mentioned. If a command is home for Christmas, usually they do some sort of stand-down period where they give them leave in two sections (usually you either get Christmas or New Years and not both). Other than that, you take it when you can get it. When your ship is in port and your command can afford to let you take a few days or two weeks off... I know this sounds super simple, but it's not. Lol. Getting all those to line up can be quite the task. 

Just go with the flow of things once he gets to his sea command. He'll figure out pretty quickly when is and isn't a good time to ask for leave (they'll usually straight out tell them you can or can't take leave during these times). 

[Alex's Girl]

How soon in advance do they normally find out?

I.e. if we want to take a vacation together- will he know a couple months in advance if he can take time off?

Thanks again guys, still so much to learn!

[Anti M]

Normally, they have to submit a request chit for approval with the dates they desire about a month in advance, [possibly two months, two weeks in advance in some cases.   They can start talking it over with their chain of command much longer than that.  A lot will depend on the policy of his ship.  Some like them early, some do not like them too far in advance.

Taking a vacation gets tricky, because even if he gets his request approved, it can be rescinded if things change (going out to sea unexpectedly, someone else gets ill and he is needed, many scenarios).   If he has a good command, they will work around his plans if they involve something like a wedding )his own), but honestly, making paid for reservations is just darn difficult.  I know when I took leave, even when I had my leave papers in hand, I was nervous until I was on a plane!  

If you are thinking about a cruise or travel outside of the US, be aware that adds a layer of paperwork, he must get permission to leave the US in addition to getting leave approved.  Much of Mexico is off limits.  Didn't know if that was anything you were thinking of, but I have seen the question here before is why I thought to mention it.

[Fur&FeathersDVM]

The official policy is that you can accrue up to 60 days of leave at a time.  That being said, all navy personnel are currently authorized to accumulate up to 75 days before they begin losing leave.  This is a temporary authorization through September 30th, 2015 (after that day, the number will drop back down to 60 unless it is re authorized). NAVADMIN 026/13 is the authorization for this (http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/reference/messages/Documents/...) :) So if your boyfriend can't use it right away, he's still got awhile before they'll start taking leave away!

As others have said, leave really depends on the ship's schedule and can vary a lot. My husband has had leave canceled the day he was leaving and has been called back from leave due to a change in ship schedule. Sometimes you know awhile in advance, sometimes not. When we got married, my husband's leave chit got approved about five days before the wedding. I think the longest my husband has gone without being able to take leave was a little over a year- sometimes the schedule just doesn't allow it.

Your boyfriend's orders for where he is headed post-OCS will give him a report no later than date. If that date is not for immediately after OCS, he can take some leave right away. My husband had some OCS classmates who got to take a couple of weeks after OCS. However, my husband got his orders Thursday of graduation week, graduated Friday, and had a report no later than date of that Monday (as in three days post graduation, so he had to leave for Virginia right away). His ship was deployed and they needed him ASAP, so that's a worst case scenario- although not an uncommon one, he had a decent number of classmates that did not get leave after OCS.

That being said- my husband has been blessed to have wonderful commands. His first command worked with us to make our wedding and honeymoon happen, his second helped make sure he was at my vet school graduation and was able to take me on a trip to celebrate the end of over four years of living apart, and his current command lets him take leave around my crazy work schedule (he's on shore duty now so it's a little different). If you remember that they WILL try to get your boyfriend some time off to spend with you, it just has to be when their schedule can allow it, your life will be a lot less stressful. You may not get to take your vacation at the ideal time, but it will work out eventually. :) And always, always, always get travel insurance that allows for reimbursement of your travel plans due to cancellation of leave. USAA has great travel insurance policies for this purpose. You just never know when things will change in the navy!