Christmas Leave?

[oorah64]

My Marine is new in the fleet, and his unit just got back from a deployment which he was not involved with- they were already gone when he arrived on base after training.

He is stationed in Pendleton. But I recently found out that he will not be able to come home for Christmas because he is assigned for duty on the 21st and 25th of next month. Is this because he's new in the fleet aka a 'BOOT?' I don't understand this because most Marines are able to take leave for the holidays unless they are deployed, or so I've been told.

It's frustrating because I live in New Jersey and I was planning on seeing him over the summer, but now he will be in pre-deployment training for 11 months starting in May.

Is there a chance he could take a 10 day leave after Christmas in time for New Years? Or could his duty possibly be rescheduled or changed?

I mainly need some info on how Marines are chosen to be able to leave for the holidays other than looking at how many days of leave they have used up; my husband took leave in November for a week, but I know he still has plenty of days to use up.

Thanks for any help.

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[ChuckH]

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[Rocky C]

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Welcome to the Forum Shelby.

[Kegler300]

Commands are very liberal regarding leave during the holidays. He shouldn't have a problem getting Christmas leave.

[Tennessee Top]

Hopefully it will work out and he can be home for New Years. If his duty is rescheduled or changed that just means somebody else will get stuck with it on Christmas. It happens to all of us and we all stood our share of duty during the holidays. As far as being frustrated, my advice to you is to get used to it (this will certainly not be the only time).

Marines submit a written leave request to their Commanding Officer. Just because they may have a leave balance (days on the books) does not mean the request will automatically be approved. Things that may have a bearing on the CO's decision are training schedules, duty schedules, pre-deployment preparations, etc. For welfare and morale purposes, commands normally try to do everything they can to grant the request and being a "boot" should have no bearing. Denying leave should never be used as a means of punishment.

[Quinbo]

The units I was in generally had liberal leave over the holidays. Especially right after deployment. The sticky part here is there has to be a crew of watch standers even during the holidays. There is kind of a pecking order of who gets to go and who gets to stay and it generally sorts out that if every last Marine in the unit wants leave then some will get Christmas and some will get New Years and nobody gets both. This is entirely up to the C.O. sans the watch stander part. They will probably justifiably feel that while they were in a far off land their new guy was on leave a couple times and liberty often so they get head of the line as far as who gets choice on leave blocks. The last fleet unit I was in had it set up in 10 day blocks. It didn't matter who was what you could only take 10 days and it had to be during one of the leave blocks.

That's a long drawn out way of saying that he gets last choice and there may be another leave block available. I would think that at this late stage he would already have to had put in his leave request and starting with his NCO's on up gotten it blessed or an explanation of the situation beyond the scope of any information that we can provide.

[fl1946]

I understand how you feel not to have your son with you during the holidays, but as Tennessee Top and others have said, the needs of the Marine Corps come first. Your son will be away many more times, and in some cases far longer than the holidays. The Marine Corps AND Navy's Achilles heel has always been a retention issue when men and women must be away for 9 month, yearly deployments.

[Lisa 23]

I understand how you feel not to have your son with you during the holidays, but as Tennessee Top and others have said, the needs of the Marine Corps come first. Your son will be away many more times, and in some cases far longer than the holidays. The Marine Corps AND Navy's Achilles heel has always been a retention issue when men and women must be away for 9 month, yearly deployments.

It's not her son in the Marine Corps, it's her husband.

[tripledog]

Personally, until Im shown different , it is her boyfriend. And you dont want to hear this but if you are his wife, you must know that if the Marines wanted him to have a wife , they would have issued him one.


I spent 5 years away on christmas, thats what happends when you join a mens club instead of a boys club/