Army Paternity leave?

Question

My hubby is Spc in the Army (Intell). Two Yrs ago when I had our son he got 10 days paternity (I know it's classed as family emergency leave or something but we'll call it Paternity leave for now, K?)

This time his platoon leader is only allowing him to put in for 5 days.

His CO is looking up the reg, bc she is almost sure it is up to 14 days (Since they are a rear deployment and working under mission she says it will be 10 days again)

Now his PL is trying to bring the forward CO (His Company's actual CO not the XO stand in) into it. Would it just be best to take the 5 days and avoid the hassle, or should he encourage his rear CO stand her ground and fight it?

Answer 1

I agree with Hillary. Just think it through and based on your decision, take action.  

Answer 2

If you really want those ten days, then fight it. The worst thing they can do is say "no." Don't be scared off by some platoon leader.

If the Army regulation says its allowed, then your husband is authorized it and shouldn't be jipped out of five days of leave just because some sgt. has a problem with it. Babies are only born once...!

Good luck!

Answer 3

any leave taken is purely taken out of Annual leave and is chargeable.  

It is command discretion as to  whether or not you can get any time off for this, whether it is chargeable or not and how long you can request.  

  

Answer 4

Fight it. It's the right thing to do. If this happens to him, it'll happen to the next guy. If the mission and ops tempo lets him be off for 10 days, he should get 10 days. If the ops tempo says otherwise, then fine. But don't let them s***w you out of something that DOD says you should have.

Answer 5

I would advise you that it really doesn't hurt to ask.  He can't get in trouble for asking.  I would say however that leave is conditional at least from everything I have heard and experienced.  If the mission does not allow leave at the time of the birth than it doesn't allow time.  Are you high risk?  If so that could change things.  Has he put in a request for leave around the time of the expected birth?  If not he may want to consider doing that.  That is what my husband and I are going to try and do for our third child's birth in December.  All leave is chargeable and the "paternity leave" isn't approved yet so I wouldn't really get hung up on that potential.  Hope it all works out..but I would definitely try and go about the requests in a way that doesn't shoot your husband in the foot later.  Good luck!

Answer 6

Ya know I would say the CO is fighting it because your husband is not the one who had the baby and sees no reason for you needing help witht he little, one, she would probably be more simpathetic if your husband was a female and you a male.

Just be as pleasant about it as you can, he can take tow days leave on top of the paternity leave, if you want to not put up a fight, of course the CO must sign the leave, but at least he would be giving up two days of his vacation timke, instead of tryign to take theirs. Who knows.

Answer 7

Well as a military wife, be careful of the toes you step on today as the may be connected to the butt you have to kiss tomorrow.  It is essentially up to his CO NOT his platoon leader how much leave time he gets.  The Platoon Leader will probably face some trouble for bringing in the forward operations CO due to the fact that he/she has more important issues to worry about.  It's not a matter of a huge fight on his part because the CO does out rank the PL.  But in the grand scheme of things 5 days is better than none.  But if you choose to fight it, use the chain of command, it'll out rank the Platoon Leader without question, which the CO already does anyway.

Answer 8

Y'all should read the Army Times more often...

It's in the works of getting approved by Congress for FY09.  It's a 50/50 chance of getting approved for the Army, but you can use these to provide some firepower to aid your cause.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/ar...

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/ai...

The proposal is to authorize 21 days of "Paternity Leave."