Army Regulation Leaves And Passes

Understanding Army Leave and Pass Regulations

Army Regulation Leaves And Passes is governed primarily by AR 600-8-10, and if you are a soldier reading this trying to figure out how to actually get time off without someone making your life difficult, let me save you some headaches. Most people who are new to the Army conflate these two concepts, and it causes problems because the approval chains and restrictions are completely different. Leave is authorized absence from duty, usually 24 hours or more, and requires a leave request going through the chain of command with a valid reason. A pass is temporary authorization to be absent for less than 24 hours, typically overnight or weekend passes, and operates under a different approval authority entirely. I learned this the hard way during my third deployment when I submitted a leave request for a four-day weekend pass because I did not understand the distinction. My first sergeant rejected it immediately. Not because the dates were wrong or the unit could not spare me, but because I had filed a leave form for something that should have been a pass. That cost me six weeks of vacation days I would have otherwise used appropriately. It was a stupid mistake and I do not recommend it.

How Leave Requests Actually Work in Practice

The process runs through LeaderSource in most units now, which is the Army's web-based leave management system. You submit your leave request, your immediate supervisor approves or disapproves within a set timeframe, then it moves up through the chain. The commander makes the final decision based on unit mission readiness. Here is what nobody tells you about that system: LeaderSource will let you submit a leave request as far out as three years in advance, but almost no commander approves anything beyond nine months because they do not know what the future looks like. If you try to book a wedding three years out and put in a leave request now, you are going to get denied or the approval will come with language that it is subject to change. The practical window is anywhere from three to nine months out depending on your unit's deployment cycle. Another thing people miss: your leave balance does not reset on October first like some people think. The fiscal year runs from October first to September thirtieth, but what actually matters is your leave statement. Check it monthly. Soldiers who find out on leave day that they have three days instead of eight because their leave got eaten by uncredited overseas time or some administrative error are the ones ending up on phone calls with their NCOIC at 2200 hours the night before their flight.

Passes and Their Hidden Complications

Overnight passes and liberty passes have their own set of issues. The regulation gives commanders the authority to restrict or deny passes based on mission requirements, but what actually happens in garrison is that platoon sergeants and first sergeants control the pass calendar through a sign-up system. If you want a pass for a specific weekend, you need to sign up early and hope nobody with more seniority takes your spot. I ran into a situation once where I had a approved pass to attend a family funeral but my unit was doing a field training exercise that weekend. The regulation says passes take priority over non-deployable training events, but the reality is that my company commander denied the pass anyway and told me to submit a change of circumstances request. That required a letter from the funeral home, coordination with the brigade S-1, and about forty-eight hours of waiting. By the time it was approved, the service was over. I still went, but I missed the actual ceremony. This is why I recommend getting pass approvals in writing before you commit to anything time-sensitive.

When Leave Gets Denied and What You Can Do About It

Commanders deny leave for mission requirements, which is a valid reason, but they also deny it because they do not want to, which is technically against regulation but happens all the time. If your leave is denied, you have the right to request an appeal through your next chain level. The appeal needs to be in writing and should reference the specific regulatory authority that supports your request. Without that citation, your appeal goes nowhere because people tend to ignore verbal complaints. The regulation does require commanders to consider leave requests within fifteen working days. In practice, some leaders sit on requests for thirty days or more and then deny them citing mission requirements that existed the whole time. That is borderline abusive and there is not much recourse except filing a complaint through inspector general channels, which most soldiers do not want to do because it damages relationships for the rest of their career.

Special Leave Categories Worth Knowing About

Bereavement leave is twenty days maximum per occurrence, and the regulation defines qualifying family members fairly narrowly. Step-parents, siblings by blood or marriage, and in-laws all count, but distant cousins or family friends do not unless your commander grants it as ordinary leave. Military funeral honors are mandatory for any burial in a national cemetery, and you are authorized to attend as part of your leave if the timing conflicts with duty. Emergency leave exists for things like death or serious illness of an immediate family member. The definition of immediate family member in the regulation includes parents, spouses, children, siblings, grandparents, and grandchildren. Note that it does not include aunts, uncles, or nieces and nephews unless you have legal guardianship. If you are dealing with a family emergency involving someone outside that list, you are relying entirely on your commander's discretion to approve emergency leave, and many commanders will not grant it.

Downloads and Where to Find the Actual Regulation

You can download the full AR 600-8-10 document directly from the Army Publishing Directorate website at apd.army.mil. Search for AR 600-8-10 and you will get the current version. There is also a leave request form, DA Form 31, which you can find on the same site or through your unit's S-1 shop. Some installations have their own supplemental guidance on top of the regulation, so check with your S-1 about any local policies that might affect your particular unit. The regulation gets amended periodically, so the version you have on your computer might be outdated. Always verify the date on the PDF before making any decisions based on its content. I once relied on a 2017 version of AR 600-8-10 for a leave appeal and the commander rejected my argument because the paragraph I cited had been renumbered in a 2022 amendment. The substance was still there, just in a different location, and I looked incompetent for not checking the version date. It took me about twenty minutes to find the correct citation, but that twenty minutes saved me from looking like I did not bother to verify my source material.