The military's protocol on temporary leaves

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NoirSuede

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For the beginning of my novel I want to have my main character who's working as a combat medic in a really remote border outpost to somehow be allowed to leave the base temporarily in order to send mail back to her family (as a way to foreshadow them for later and also reveal a bit of her character), so that later on when she comes back she can discover that her base's been totally sacked,

But do modern-age militaries actually allow leaves somehow? I'm not sure so for those of you guys here with military experience, what do u guys think of this plot point?
 

cbenoi1

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She could have been ordered to assist a doctor in the nearby village and she used the time to mail her family.

-cb
 

mrsmig

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Is this U.S. military, or somewhere else? Army, or some other branch of the service? And is it wartime or peacetime service?

All that will factor in to what kind of leave would be available to your MC.
 

NoirSuede

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Is this U.S. military, or somewhere else? Army, or some other branch of the service? And is it wartime or peacetime service?

All that will factor in to what kind of leave would be available to your MC.

She's in the army and technically it's peacetime, but unfortunately on the year of 2044, her country of Indonesia is undergoing border tensions with the neighboring country of Malaysia.
 

mrsmig

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Since your story is set in the future, you've got some wiggle room to make up rules to fit into your plot. I'd do some research into Indonesian military and use that as a springboard.

I do wonder if snail-mail would be a thing in 2044...
 

Al X.

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At least in the US military, there are a couple forms of leave. There is formal leave that is accrued like vacation in a civilian job and treated as such - it is coordinated and scheduled with a supervisor and charged against the accrual. Then there is an informal leave called a 'pass' which can be any length of time up to three days (e.g. three day weekend) and is not charged as leave.

A deployed soldier in a non combat overseas assignment might be granted a pass for such an activity, or for off post R&R. A combat deployed soldier typically wouldn't, for fairly obvious reasons unless they were in some major base (e.g. Bagram or Kandahar.)

I don't have a clue about Indonesia or Malaysia, but I suspect their system of granting passes would be similar and less formal. Concur with the assessment of snail mail in 2044.

Just an observation, in most countries' military services, the need to send and receive mail off post is not a thing to begin with.
 
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NoirSuede

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Since your story is set in the future, you've got some wiggle room to make up rules to fit into your plot. I'd do some research into Indonesian military and use that as a springboard.

I do wonder if snail-mail would be a thing in 2044...
My justification for having snail-mail in 2044 was that she was placed in a very remote outpost, on what is basically a border village that's just developing into a town.
 

cmhbob

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Mail is an important thing for service members. When I was in the Army in the 80s, we got mail even during field training exercises. I'd have a hard time believing there was no regular supply run that couldn't handle mail for her. But in the US military, "last-mile" handling of mail is done by US troops. Maybe she doesn't want military hands on her mail?

But if you really need her away from teh remote outpost for a while, I like cbenoi1's idea.
 

rgroberts

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Most modern militaries don't require any sort of leave just to get off base. Contrary to what a lot of people think, although being in the service is a 24 hour lifestyle, it's not a 24 hour job. Soldiers/Sailors/Marines/Airmen leave base all the time, to grab coffee, grab lunch, go out. A lot of folks don't even live on base these days - I never did in my ten years in the service. Here in the US, you don't usually need any kind of pass to leave the base, even if it's for the weekend. You just have to get approved if you're going out of area (distance depends on the command, but at most of mine it was 250 miles).

The military doesn't expect you to give up all your non-military friends and family. There are enough sacrifices without that. While I don't know the specifics of Indonesia's military, I expect service members there are still members of the community and can come and go within reason.

Bottom line: I think your plot point is 100% realistic.
 
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Thomas Vail

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"Leave" just to send mail sounds weird, unless it's a regular duty someone from the base takes all the collected outbound mail and goes to deliver it to be sent, picking up anything that has arrived in the interim. Having her have to be away from the outpost due to some other duties would seem a more logical method for getting her away for however long she needs to be. The fact it lets her mail something is just a benefit.
 

thethinker42

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Here in the US, you don't usually need any kind of pass to leave the base, even if it's for the weekend.

These days, overseas bases frequently require liberty cards to get off-base at all. When I lived on Okinawa, I frequently had to argue with the gate guards about it because we lived on a Marine base -- Marines were required to show liberty cards to go off-base, Air Force had to during certain times of day, but Navy was free to come and go (we just had to show ID before coming on base). That included dependents, not just service members.
 

NoirSuede

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Alright thanks for the help guys, so I take it the general consensus is that it'd make more sense if she left the base because of an assignment, like looking for the lost supply truck for example?
 

Al X.

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Alright thanks for the help guys, so I take it the general consensus is that it'd make more sense if she left the base because of an assignment, like looking for the lost supply truck for example?

I would say yes but your medic isn't going off base alone to look for a supply truck, or in general on an off post assignment. I'd keep it a personal issue like shopping or lunch or something.

Also as an FYI, US Army units in cold war Germany were generally split up all over their host towns in separate 'kasearns', and it was often necessary to travel across town from one barracks to another in order to conduct daily business. You could maybe work that sort of scenario in your story as well.
 

NoirSuede

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I would say yes but your medic isn't going off base alone to look for a supply truck, or in general on an off post assignment. I'd keep it a personal issue like shopping or lunch or something.

Also as an FYI, US Army units in cold war Germany were generally split up all over their host towns in separate 'kasearns', and it was often necessary to travel across town from one barracks to another in order to conduct daily business. You could maybe work that sort of scenario in your story as well.

Soldiers can just leave their base to go shopping?
 

rgroberts

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Soldiers can just leave their base to go shopping?

Yep. Sometimes it works differently for US service members overseas, but generally speaking, we're normal Americans when we're off duty. There generally isn't enough housing on base to hold us all, either. (And even "base housing" is frequently located off base these days.) I lived off base all 10 years I was in the Navy. I shopped at the Commissary because it was cheaper, but shopping for clothes at the Exchange is stupid when there are better choices.

Service members aren't generally restricted to base unless they're on duty or they've done something wrong. Morale would be terrible if that were the case, and retention would suck. You give up a lot going in the service (you're working long hours, deploying for months on end, giving up weekends for duty, following rules more stringent than for the general public, etc). Stopping people from being able to go to the movies, shop in a normal store, or go out to a bar would make people miserable.
 

RBEmerson

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Alright thanks for the help guys, so I take it the general consensus is that it'd make more sense if she left the base because of an assignment, like looking for the lost supply truck for example?
In the current military, assuming the facility isn't in some state of alert keeping people from using a pass or similar "permission slip", it's easy-peasy to step off post and do whatever. I used to mail stuff to my eventually to be German wife via German mail system. In my case I was in a "team" (loosely company size) on a German post (long story not worth telling). Getting almost anything useful meant going off post, anyway. Point being, being assigned to some tiny unit only relaxes things to some degree. As an example, being US Army in some parts of the world or on particular dates (e.g., May Day) was "nobody leaves" day. - long story, etc.

As someone said, the rules in 2044 are whatever you say they are. And 2044 circumstances might make things harder or easier. Your call.
 
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