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Deployed soldiers to get 18 days of leave

Service members on 15-month deployments to support Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom will receive 18 days of R&R leave instead of the typical 15 days, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.

The policy change, contained in a memo signed July 13 by Dr. David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, was effective the day it was signed and is not retroactive. That means only service members who took leave on or after July 13 are allowed 18 days of leave.

This change applies to all service members, but only the Army has standard 15-month deployments. The move to 15-month deployments for active Army soldiers went into effect in April.

Rest and recuperation time will stay at 15 days for troops who serve fewer than 15 months in theater.

In June, the Army marked the return of the 500,000th service member to take advantage of the R&R program from the war zone with a celebration at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

Central Command’s R&R leave program began Sept. 25, 2003, and about 420 service members fly home from the war zone on R&R leave every day, according to information from the Army. Two chartered commercial planes fly troops and Defense Department civilians from Kuwait International Airport to two U.S. hubs, Atlanta and Dallas.