January 5, 2008: The U.S. Air Force is
the last of the four services to adopt an extra leave (vacation days) program
for those who have spent an above-average amount of time overseas. Officially
called PDMRA
(Post-Deployment/Mobilization Respite Absence), it awards 1-4 extra
vacation days for every additional month, over twelve, spent overseas in the
past three years. Troops normally get 30 vacation days a year. PDMRA is a sliding scale, so someone who spent
fifteen months overseas, would get three extra vacation days. Someone who spent
20 months would get 16 extra days and someone who spent 25 months overseas
would get 52 extra days. Each service has a slightly different formula for
awarding the extra leave days.
The additional leave is seen as more of
a necessity than a luxury. Some troops in undermanned, but much needed,
categories, spend a lot of additional time overseas. This puts a big strain on
family life. Even though there are cash bonuses for the additional time
overseas, that doesn't make up for the time away from the family. The extra
leave days helps address that problem. PDMRA
is only a short-term solution. Long term, the military has to recruit
more people for those job categories that are in high demand overseas. These
are usually highly skilled jobs in electronics and intelligence.
