April 17,
2008: The Department of Defense, in an effort to retain its most valuable (and expensive
to replace) troops, is always asking the ones who leave anyway, what additional
benefit might have kept them in. A common suggestion has been, "sabbatical" (an
extended leave, usually for a year, and most commonly granted to academics and
clergy). The sabbatical has become common in other professions, as a popular
fringe benefit.
The
Department of Defense version would transfer the troops to the IRR (Individual
Ready Reserve), reduce their pay by about 93 percent, but maintain most fringe
benefits (especially health care). Once on sabbatical, military personnel would be free to do
whatever they wanted (for one to three years). They have to show up once a year
(if the sabbatical is more than a year) to take physical (including a drug
test) and make sure their personnel records are up-to-date.
Who is
eligible for sabbatical, and for how long, has not been worked out yet. For the
moment, only the U.S. Navy is offering these sabbaticals, and on an experimental
basis. For each of the next three years, 40 sailors (half of them officers),
will be able to take a one year sabbatical. When they return from sabbatical,
they still have their old rank, but the sabbatical time does not count when
calculating time in the service (for retirement) or time-in-grade (or rank, for
promotion purposes). The main purpose of sabbatical is to encourage valuable
people to stay. To that end, for every month of sabbatical, you are required to
remain at least two more months in uniform (beyond what your current service
obligation is.)
The other
services will be watching this experiment with great interest, as will many of
those who might be tempted to make a career (20-30 years) of the service if
they could have a sabbatical.
