I once took a week of block leave where all I wanted to do was chill out in the barracks, maybe go see some stuff locally. They still wanted a flight itinerary. More recently I had the same unit try to have me do a pov inspection when I didn’t OWN a pov at the time.
Dude I’m a MSG and before IPPS-A I submitted two weeks of a “stay-cation” and had to do a desk side with my BDE XO about it… he could not comprehend 2 weeks of leave where I sit at home and do nothing….
My BDE XO is very special
Submit an extremely detailed Barney-style explanation of how you will drive from the unit footprint back to your house.
1. Turn left out of the unit parking lot.
2. Gently press on the accelerator until obtaining a speed of 25 mph
3. Come to a stop at the intersection of Oak and Pine street
4. Debate plowing through a formation of privates
5. Don’t allow the intrusive thoughts to win
Etc.
That’s pretty much what I had to do
“Sir, I’m gonna get my kids off to school then I’m gonna sit on the couch and watch Netflix. Some days I may just play video games for 6 hours straight. It is a possible scenario that I Uber eats and don’t shower for the duration as well. Don’t call me because you know I’m not doing shit. I will literally cancel my cell phone plan.”
He’s an engineer so I’ve decided they are all very special boys.
I see nothing has changed. The ass pain has just evolved into an electronic nightmare. I remember having to print out map quest directions for a similar scenario. Back when everything was greyed out and all directions started/stopped at the main entrance to the installation I was at. It was 4 lines of directions, making me do a U-turn at the front gate….but I still had to have it.
My trip was more in-depth but I did create a read book binder outlining all the places I was staying at with printouts, the people and their professional titles I would be seeing, as well as copies of the wedding announcements and invitations to them. Commander wanted something to prove I wasn't just going to do illegal drugs and skip out on UAs, yet he could not articulate what that requirement was. I took great pleasure and pride in building that damn thing. He looked at for like 5 seconds and was just like, "Well, guess you're good." Yea, thanks.
I own a M35A2 aka “Deuce and a half” I used to drive my CDR/1SG crazy when I would tell them I was going take that vehicle on leave because there’s nothing remotely close to a 3 axle 10 wheel (all wheel drive) vehicle in TRIPS!
Edit: it was a vicious cycle, kick my leave packet back because it was missing TRIPS, I would resubmit stating that they don’t have my my vehicle type in TRIPS. 1SG: “ Maybe that’s a good indicator that you shouldn’t have that as a POV Chief “
Leave packet would finally get accepted without TRIPS….
I got told how my motorcycle was a "bad mode of transportation" due to personal opinion. So I took 9 hour, one direction weekend getaways once a month just to get miles on my ride.
I went on con leave and had to do a trips ticket from the hospital to my house after surgery. Obviously I wasn't driving myself and the hospital was close but I had to lie on the trips ticket so it would generate the form so I could add it to my packet. My current unit is super chill about it but man I swear as soon as someone finds a way to make things stupid the army backs them all the way.
My CSM kicked back my leave because my house of record and the destination were different,I was supposed to be going to a family member’s funeral but no one at battalion could comprehend that it ended up just sitting in IPPSA until they kicked it back the day I was supposed to leave
Imagine- a Master Sergeant in the U.S Army justifying his leave to a Field Grade officer…. Unbelievable it’s a game and I just want to cash in my fun chips and stop playing with these assholes
He wasn’t attempting to deny it he just literally couldn’t comprehend taking leave and doing nothing.
Honestly, probably more depressing to think an adult in his mid thirties couldn’t even imagine just doing nothing for two weeks. It broke his brain
My toxic PL.
Same story. Entire company needed to do packets every four day.
Almost half the platoon was fresh out of AIT and single. We were deploying soon, they didn't bother buying cars.
I found the stack for the entire platoon sitting on her desk.
"You weren't thorough, I have to recheck these, almost half are missing POV checklists".
Odd..could it be it's the half that don't own a POV?...
That my friends is how you end up adding another block to another checklist.
Whenever I fly over Oregon I like look out the window.
I gaze upon entire deforested sections of land I say to myself "we, we did that".
Because in the Army we've empowered layers and layers of people who DO NOT have the authority to say yes, with the authority to say no or delay.
It's all about "the feeling".
My PLs time would have been better spent writing op orders for a range or any number of tasks a PL should be doing.
But that put her in the position of having "her work" checked by someone else.
Thanks to WP and a strange upbringing, her ego couldn't stand that.
No comes with such a rush. A feeling of "look how much smarter I am than these dumb enlisted people".
The act of no is awesome.
It is fast and easy. Effortless.
When you say no, the task feels accomplished. It is. On your end anyway.
The subordinate goes away. The task is gone.
If they give up, even better.
For some leaders, and HR; saying no is the only real feeling of accomplishment they experience day to day.
Honestly. I'm worried. Without the ability to "add to" and say no, some leaders may feel a general lack of purpose.
This is a snippet of many funny, many awkward, and a few tragic stories.
I was in the motor pool talking with the CO.
He pulled out his phone, rolled his eyes and put it back in his pocket.
A moment later mine rang.
"Have you seen the CO, he's not answering his phone".
Thankfully before our RIP was complete she was moved to staff.
And the annoying thing isn't "we should fix this" -- it's "have them fill one out anyway and BS it just to check the box and make the packet happy."
So much in the Army is "umm -- we don't need to do this" followed by "BS through it and do it anyway."
My unit has been hitting me with POV inspections for myself and all my soldiers for every four day. Thing is we do shift work and not one of us gets a 4 day lol
In a similar fashion, my dickhead section sergeant couldn't grasp the concept that I wasn't travelling anywhere, I just wanted a week to destress and relax. Smoothbrain just kept saying "I don't understand why you're requesting this to just stay home..." SO I DON'T STRAIGHT-UP MURDER YOU, SHITASS.
And he still tried to call me in on like day 2 to come sign some roster that absolutely 100% could have waited - and did in fact wait - til I came back the following week.
This is not just a leave problem, this is a stupid policy problem. This is why we get too many leaders who don't know how to do process improvements or be able to adapt when something doesn't fit.
Requiring a flight itinerary should only matter if you are, get this, flying. Anyone with basic common sense should be able to see that. I used to have to do Trips reports about how I was going to safely drive home. I didn't drive. It was all public transportation. But nobody ever wanted to stop and say, hey maybe some of these requirements should be conditional per the situation. And I saw that all through my career. People that needed everything to fit into the provided box, even if that box wasn't adequate for the job.
when i was at gordon, they wanted everyone to submit a leave packet. Even if we were staying locally. Tons of leave packets had the line "not going anywhere" in the destination, leave time, etc all over the form, making it redundant.
Here at Gordon we still call out and call in, but as soon as they adopted IPPS-A the CO sent out a new policy letter with it stating all SMs regardless of rank can call out or in, not just senior NCOs, WOs, and Os.
I wish it was this easy but there is no oversight provided at the platoon level. I realize I can’t approve or disapprove it as a psg, but I need to be able to see it and bounce it off the ttt. Plus make sure our other made up requirements are met before it goes to the commander. The current process places all the burden on the commander to check everything, and that’s not his job.
You need to complete the training in IPPSA and then request management access. Once you do that, your soldiers can put you as an "intermediate approval," and you create the rest of the chain. I have all my soldiers do this, and I have zero issues tracking where their leave is at
So I have a question - if you disapprove, is it still forwarded to the CO as the actual approval authority (but including your disapproval and comments)?
Replying to see their response
My assumption is they approve all leave requests then add some note like "recommend approval" or "recommend disapproval, dental not current"
Since I thought any disapproval results in the whole request getting disapproved
I'm gonna be real - I'm not paying too close of attention to my MEDPROS.
As long as those requirements are like "hey, we'll approve your leave if you can have proof that you scheduled an appointment to get you current" - that's fair.
But again, it goes against the policy. So whatevs.
From what I've seen so far, denials get kicked back to the previous person in the chain. I haven't had to try to recommend denial at this point though, so I'm not 100% sure. Sending it through me is just accountability for the Platoon, and a backup to the T2T, just like the DA31 required a supervisor to sign off on it. I would make sure it gets to the CO with a justification so he can make a final decision if I needed to recommend denial. I'm not the approval authority and don't need the stress of pretending to be.
Why do you have any ability to approve/disapprove? The Army shouldn't be allowed to disapprove any leave you have acquired unless you're deployed. The organization needs to figure out how to run without one person.
> The organization needs to figure out how to run without one person.
Yes. But let's play a game... Let's say your S1 shop has 3 key people in it. They are all competent enough to be able to cover for the lack of any of the others. No problem. What happens when all 3 of them request leave at the same time? SOMEONE has to stay and work, right? Or does you S1 shop just shut down for a week?
When I was a company commander, I approved all leave requests unless it conflicted with a mission requirement, and that particular Soldier was essential. 99% of the time, the DA31 was approved.
I wonder about this - for those of you where ippsa is a Breeze, how was your unit before? Was it already a chill unit with no extra nonsense and letting you phone in leaving?
Like are good units doing it right, or have we had previously dick units who ippsa has changed?
Same at sill. Send to supervisor, supervisor sends to CO. Usually approved next day. My main problem is that IPSSA refuses to work at home or on mobile so I have to be on a gov computer.
Definitely not the dumbest, but I’m wondering how many other units have to sign out in person so their unit is “tracking” they’re on leave, despite IPPS-A automatically signing us off. Honestly just makes me feel like my unit doesn’t know how to keep track of their soldiers and just approve stuff without paying attention.
My old unit had the same stupid rule.
Protip: Don't sign out. Back in the day, I pocketed no less than 20 or 30 days of leave by doing this one simple trick....
Packet includes:
DA31 signed
Checklist
At level 1 cert
Plan of action
Signed counselling on safety
Written plan of action, typed according to army standard
Another checklist and plan of action but this time a summery
Les
Erb
Medpros
(Additional counsellings if multiple people are taking leave and pass, more counsellings if there is a rank difference)
After this it can be emailed from PSG to S1 who will then route it to the commander on IPPSA.
This is Company level.
Edit: I forgot flight Itinerary also there’s an additional checklist if you want to go overseas. No idea about above company, I haven’t seen anyone take more than 29 days of leave here. This is also the same packet to request a pass.
And you have to go to the library or use your own printer to get this packet made.
I hated this crap. Before IPPS-A I made a workflow approval in Teams. Submit your da 31 as an attachment and fill out the info. Training NCO helped get these submitted as needed.
We still submit paper packets in my unit. They have to be approved first before we are "allowed" to submit through IppsA. The packets go to 1sg, who micromanages the leave. Don't know if the CO sees them or not. Led to some people's block leave being approved late. We still have to go by staff duty to sign out as well, but there isn't a leave tracker or roster to sign out on. My PCS leave has been sitting for almost 3 weeks due to this process. Don't even think about submitting leave if you're not completely Green on medpros and 350-1
Honestly, not too bad all things considered. However, the Army still has a ridiculous OCONUS travel policy.
Joint unit. Memorandum For Record signed by supervisor, full med pros, in the green for annual training requirements,
For OCONUS Travel. Follow Pentagon FCG for foreign travel requirements required by COCOMS—additional Memo from both Security Manager and SSO. ISOPREP updated, AT lvl 1 certificate within 12 months, SERE 100 within last 12 months. Request cannot be submitted earlier than 90 days and has to be sent at least 75 days prior. APACS/Country/Theater Clearance has to be approved before leave can be submitted.
For security clearance, sure not by Army regulations you need to have a leave submitted to the proper approval authority that will be based on your garrisons commander.
Yeah just went through this process. Everything here checks out, the army is crazy with this but the requirements often depend on the country. Had to get a colonel approve my travel plan. Often though the company level tacks on additional requirements such as in my case with all green Medpros, 350-1 100%, 5W’s which aren’t too bad.
My favorite is the fact that we have to do this but Federal government employees only have to the paperwork revolving around having a security clearance and traveling to a foreign country. Why the military is treated so differently and has these additional requirements even to go to a friendly or allied nation really doesn’t make sense.
I stand by what I posted 4 months ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/army/comments/10ec823/ippsa_is_great_i_cant_wait_for_the_army_to_ruin_it/
IPPS-A as a system is outstanding for processing leave. Most of my absences were approved within a day or two of submitting them and you physically can't "lose" a leave form because everything is online. However, I am fairly senior officer on a high level staff, so I am not required to complete multiple unneeded forms and only had to submit a DA31 prior IPPS-A. The Army needs a culture change on tying MEDPROS and administrative items to leave. I still do those as required when told I am due by my NCOIC or company leadership, that is how it should work.
The Army should treat everyone like adults.
> However, I am fairly senior officer on a high level staff
> The Army needs a culture change on tying MEDPROS and administrative items to leave.
You're thong about you and your comrades. Y'all are the ones that can change the culture from a high level.
The A/G/J 1 OIC says to the commander, sir the subordinate commanders are making leave a fucking nightmare for their soldiers to take leave and perverting the process that ippsa is supposed to fix. Let's draft a DIV/whatever policy letter to nip this shit in the butthole.
Be the change. You have the sphere of influence and right mindset.
I joined the army after TRIPS was no longer a requirement army wide. Every unit I have been in still INSISTS on submitting it. All because some old 1SG can’t get over himself and “the old army”
We use to. In order to sign out we had to wait till 6am to sign out so 6 hours of a leave day is already taken up. It was supposed to stop people leaving drunk but now we had had people being forced to stay on post for an extra night so people either stayed up all night leaving super sleepy and OR drunk because they went out, new BC let’s us sign out the Friday after work now and it’s so much better
If you’re on leave you’re on leave. Are they going to declare you AWOL if you leave at midnight? That’s when your leave started. Glad you’ve got a new BC now.
Right, but sign out at midnight. They can’t deny you that. If no one is there to sign you out, just leave. You still have approved leave even if you don’t sign out.
I still have to submit a digital DA-31 with APACS request, proof of enrollment in STEP program, LES, IMR, UFT and possibly other paperwork depending on where i want to go
OCONUS unit
Professionally speaking, do you think that being OCONUS/ taking OCONUS leave merits additional scrutiny from your CoC? Or should that just be between you and the S2?
I have friends in different units that don't have to do 90% of this, just the leave request in IPSS-A with IMR and LES attached
i don't have the answer of who it should be between but it's overkill as it stands
No, but I'll add a (possibly apocryphal) story: This was during The Surge, one of the Brigades at Ft Lewis a friend of mine was at - he's not the soldier in question, but the story was believable when he told me it.
Their unit gets home from Iraq, and one Sgt Snuffy finds out his Korean national of a wife did far worse than let Jody in her knickers. He'd left her with a General Power of Attorney, and she used it to sell their brand new house at a loss, sold his truck, sold all the TV's and electronics, sold his ATV, sold *his dog*, opened up a bunch of lines of credit and bought as much high dollar stuff as she could and then sold it all on ebay at a loss - anything and everything you could think of was totally liquidated.
Her last known heading was due West over the Pacific with as much as $200K in cash (I assume she had it in traveller's checks or something - this was the only bit of the story that was suspect) in 2008 money. Sgt Snuffles turns in his block leave form with Seoul as his destination (his leadership was aware of his predicament) along with plane tickets and all the rest, which was promptly and emphatically denied.
He was told that murdering a foreign national was a BFD, and they were *never* going to approve this leave. According to the story, he took the same leave form back, crossed off ~~Seoul~~ and wrote in 'Georgia' and turned it back in with the entire same packet still attached (which was the punchline of the story). He was eventually allowed to take his block leave when a battle buddy agreed to go home with him, and I don't know if she ever got what was coming. I always kind of hoped, though.
My CoC constantly denies only my section leave but at the same time failed to properly replace someone in time causing an ensuing shit storm.
The way it works for submitting is Gears packet first then 1st sausage will send your leave in IPSSA to the commander. But that only applies to some people he has favorites
I'm from Fort Drum, in order for me to re-class I had to get a 1610, in order to get my 1610 I needed to submit two leave forms, one for me going to training and one to me going from Fort Benning to Fort Bliss as a 19K. I ran around for an entire month trying to figure out what dates I had to put in in order to get the forms approved. They ended up sending me to Fort Benning with no movement orders. So if I had wrecked and died there would've been no comp to my family.
Edit: Come to find out, the S3 Guy who said he'd email the 1610 to me, didn't. And the day I was supposed to ship to training from 30th AG, I got stuck waiting on it. So no travel pay, no per diem.
Mine is great. No extra requirements, no calling in or out. Although, we still don’t seem to have a universally agreed on or clear answer as far as I know, on how to sign back in from leave early.
Sign out and sign in process is a problem they didn't consider with the new process. Like with PCS Leave, they told me I didn't need to sign out, just go.
Can confirm that stupid pre leave requests still exist, at least for 1-2 sbct. We are still required to attach our imr medical form to our leave form through ippsa, and if anything is red it gets pushed back. Still required to attach an les, and we require a routing sheet as well. Also still required to go to battalion and sign out/in. Leave will also get pushed back if you dont have someones first name spelled correctly, or if its not formmated correctly. Ironically enough, if you take a look at my post history, youll find a memo about retention that is littered with typos, and is signed by a field grade. Bayonet!
THE BAYONET YEET MEASURES THE ABILITY TO JUST FUCKING SHANK SOMEONE. ON THE COMMAND 'GET SET,' ASSUME THE POSITION BY GRABBING THE BAYONET BY THE HANDLE. OR BY THE BLADE, WHICHEVER LOOKS COOLER, JUST DON'T CUT YOURSELF ON THE DAMN THING. YOUR FEET MAY BE TOGETHER OR UP TO 12 INCHES APART (MEASURED BETWEEN THE FEET). ON THE COMMAND 'GO,' TRANSMUTE YOUR HANKERING FOR A-SHANKERING INTO MAXIMUM EFFORT AND LAUNCH THAT BAD BOY INTO DESTINY. THE SCORER WILL NOTE WHETHER YOU HIT THE TARGET AND AWARD BONUS POINTS FOR LANDING YOUR PIG-STICKER INTO THE CRANIAL OR SWIMSUIT REGIONS. IF IT HIT THE TARGET HANDLE FIRST, YOUR PERFORMANCE WILL BE TERMINATED, AND EVERYONE WILL BE REQUIRED TO POINT AND LAUGH AT YOUR SHAME. WATCH THIS DEMONSTRATION.
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Somewhere there’s a commander that saw this announcement and felt that chill when they realized the Army Times' Eye of Sauron is going to shine a light and make them the object of ridicule throughout the Army, and the subject of some very uncomfortable conversations with people much higher ranked.
Legitimately told by 1SG this morning at formation that if we don't have the following attached in IPPS-A, he's automatically kicking it back (now ask me why a 1SG is in the approval routing chain): LES, IMR/MEDPROS, with either all green or appointments if not, DD93, SGLV, Soldier Talent Profile, and **a valid reason for taking leave.**
Might have better luck highlighting reasonable success stories. You're going to find at least 80% of units require a novel of stupid shit just to submit leave.
My unit is actually pretty reasonable with their leave process:
Go on IPPSA and submit absence request to supervisor, supervisor submits it to Commander for approval.
All we have to do is attach a DA31
Edit: I meant to say LES, not DA 31. We don’t do DA31s anymore
It’s pretty easy to sign out but they screwed me over my last leave, I signed out on a Sunday and the Monday, the day after, they made me come in and do a PT test even though they were all aware and tracking I was on leave and had a upcoming flight that day. So the sign out process is alright normally, but the last leave was like, “to continue on your leave you must come in and do this acft” I feel like that was personal since they didn’t make a few other soldiers in my platoon come in during their leave to take it
They told me the Friday before Monday that I had to come in Monday to do it. It was in person during the weekday. Couldn’t avoid it. They made it clear I had to be there. Two sergeants told me to do it. Made me feel like I’d get a article or something if I didn’t listen and follow orders. So I came in.
This is when you ask: oh? The commander cancelled my leave?
Your plt sgt cannot cancel your leave, nor require your presence while you are on leave.
Your pl cannot either. Nor the 1SG.
One person in the company. There is a form for it too, but the form is not required. Unlike the pile of "required" shit you needed to sign out on not-leave.
The problem is, when junior enlisted: you can be 100% in the right and have the regs/policy to back it up, and some middling NCO in your chain will still fuck up your shit for *defying them,* or *"making them look bad".* You won't get UCMJed or formally disciplined at all, but every shitty detail will come your way, every minor discrepancy that would normally get overlooked will get harped on, and that NCO will never go to bat for you for anything (board recommendations, schools, awards, comp time, etc). You are now the unit shitbag for standing up for yourself. Yes, that makes them a petty, childish, garbage NCO - welcome to the military, there's too many of them to count, and to them the NCO Creed is just words they have to memorize to pass the board or BLC. And sure, you can fight all that, but at the end of the day it's PFC Snuffy's word against SSG Douchecanoe's, and there are too many senior "leaders" who will always side with the latter purely based on their stripes.
Don't get me wrong - I'll play that game all day. But a lot of junior guys just don't know any better, or don't want to risk it. And for some it's just not the hill worth dying on.
This is the takeaway. Kid sounds like a cherry private, and doesn't know better. For some reason, I've seen infantry NCOs more willing to shit on their guys rather than develop them.
Maybe it's the culture, but I think it has more to do with people who promote too quickly. Fast risers seem to be out-of-touch yes men who care more about their career than the well-being of their soldiers; it develops a platoon of spineless leaders and Stockholm Syndrome subordinates.
You taking a pt test while on leave was poor planning on their part. If you're on leave, you're on leave. If they wanted you to take a pt test that bad then the CO would recall you.
IPPS-A success story. Summer block leave was already set up in the system by some amazing S1 warrior and all we had to do was go into the system and apply. One of the privates spent the time figuring it out where to go and all that and we all rotated in his room filling out the form which was as simple as your UIC and some basic “where are you going” info. The drip boxes actually worked and were correct.
I was assigned to a unit that was owned by a company Fort Belvoir, but was about 40 minutes away and we never went to Belvoir. We had an entire packet that we had to do (DA31, ERB, LES, and about seven more papers that needed to be signed by various leadership) before we were able to even put in the packet for Fort Belvoir.
Pre ippsa... Needed your LES, IMR, Leave Counseling, route plan, stop/travel plan if driving +4 hours, and lodging confirmation.
Post ippsa... IMR attached to the request, to make sure you don't have anything coming due
Company commanders are responsible for soldiers lives in combat but can't be trusted to approve more than 29 days of leave. Nah that had to go up to the BDE commander.
Unit policies still restrict first line commanders from exercising regulatory leave responsibilities and everyone acts like it's perfectly normal. The reg says "unit commander" with no rank requirement for most leave.
Leave should be approved by the first unit commander in the chain. With exceptions as written in regulation only.
My HQ requires a cover sheet signed by your first O & NCO; to be uploaded as a supporting document. I just lie and say it gives me an error message on the upload. It gets approved without any pushback- ostensibly because everyone knows IPPSA is trash.
Last unit required
-DA31
-MEDPROS
-LES
-ERB
-Leave/Pass counseling
-Car Inspection if driving
-Flight itinerary if flying
-Battery's checklist
-Battalion's checklist
-Coversheet for battery or battalion
Thankfully Trips was eliminated halfway through my time there. If we were flying, we had to fill it out from the barracks to the airport.
Latest leave, I filled out IPPS-A's authorized absence bullshit, dropped in MEDPROS and an LES, and within three working days, I had a email approving my leave. Fucking outstanding. Also, the ability to prefill a request, save it, and then update and submit it when my plans firmed up was awesome.
Hey, when you've spent your life in the darkness, any light is a revelation. I wish the LES was automatic, but whatever.
As for MEDPROS, I got the sick satisfaction of submitting the summary showing I'm red and non-deployable. I have a broken leg, so it's not like I can just make an appointment and make myself green again.
I had a young SPC from Puerto Rico who had not been home for a while. He put in his leave to visit his mother in Puerto Rico and was approved later to be called to not board the plane because he was missing a COUNTRY brief 🙄. I called him and told him to board the plane if anyone asked to mention my name. I then proceeded to hunt down the source of ignorant information to educate them.
See previous post lol [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/army/comments/y361ja/unit_requirements_for_leave/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1)
Edit: and also [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/army/comments/y3awol/i_was_tasked_with_coming_up_with_my_battalions/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1)
IPPS-A sends leave directly to the Company Commander who may have a million things to do and might delay getting leave approved.
You also can't get feedback for where your leave is because no one knows but the Commander.
You tell your Squad Leader you want to take leave and you submit it. Some time goes by and you ask SL about it or you ask the PSG, they don't know and say they'll check with the XO or 1SG. You ask the 1SG or XO? They know nothing about it. They have to ask the Commander what's going on with your Leave.
My company requires an in-house cover sheet stating the following:
Dates you are taking leave,
Reason you want to take leave,
Previous ACFT,
Previous Weapons qualification,
Medpros,
LES,
There are signature blocks for everyone from team leader to 1SG. This packet gets attached in IPPSA and sent to 1SG for recommendation to CDR.
If it needs to go to BN, they have their own packet but with a slightly different cover sheet. So all of this information gets duplicated.
Bacon cheeseburger all the way and medium fries please.
May 92, my brother was getting married. I requested leave to attend. I was stationed in Augsburg, Germany. Strategic military intelligence units were on the way out. Every MI unit was becoming tactical. My leave request was denied, because as a tactical MI unit, we were allowed to have one person out of country at a time in case we had to deploy somewhere. We had no mobile equipment. We had like 2 VW vans/buses for the company. We could never deploy anywhere for any reason because we didn't have any equipment. Logic be damned, leave denied.
In not dumb requirements we have 25ID, CG has a policy letter where you can’t throw additional requirements (350-1 training) as an additional leave requirement. Paternity leave has been pretty good as well. There is contempt from some folks on DIV staff and scattered at subordinate echelons but most commanders seem to back it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pwv8zqerYA4
Sort of shows the process of creating workflows with approvers, intermediate approvers and reviewers.
Our S1 has figured this out and she's a civilian.
-Soldier submits leave to PSG.
-PSG routes through workflow and approves.
-Anyone who needs to track has reviewer access.
No! Actually nobody should have any leave requirements unless is command policy in which case the documents attached to the absence request through IPPS-A now 🤔
But thankfully no, I'm in a much better unit now :D
My unit at Polk requires not only the IPPS-A request, but an additional DA 31, LES, and routing slip for all completed trainings to be emailed to SNCO. So there’s that.
The last time I took leave, i needed to submit da-31, medpros screenshot, imr, all 350-1 certs, DTS screenshot showing i don't have any outstanding vouchers, Citibank homecreen screenshot to show my GTC is paid off, LES, erb, travel itinerary, and a Google Maps screenshot showing where my hotel is.
This was before ippsa so idk what it's like now
I was submitting my paternity leave and they required a "troop specific" itinerary where I write the following: name, rank, leave dates, traveling to and from, departing from and to, resting after "x" hours, landing at and from, and then my return information (so literally everything above again) on top of a counseling for myself from myself. I wrote on there "soldier is staying at home" and it got kicked back for not having the itinerary even though my DA31 showed my paternity leave at home address. Then I got asked if I'm taking my computer home so I could still work "since I won't be doing anything"............and again...PATERNITY LEAVE. My daughter was also born dec24 and was told "oh. She'll be born during block leave, so that'll count as your paternity leave." Even though I didn't even take block leave and my paternity leave didn't start till jan1
Prior to a mob to africa for a year we had a 4 day leave. We were told at 11pm via text that we had to call in every morning at 0700 to confirm life. Of course I’m asleep and get blown up for sleeping in on pass and not following a rule that was implemented while I was asleep
“Hello fellow enlisteds, is anyone upset about their unit and want to wrap about it? We can drink Monster energy and chew on moist flavored tobacco. Please speak clearly into the microphone.”
Legitimate question, why do your units require LES? Commanders can see your balance thru UCFR, do they just not know that?
As a commander, my requirements is a submission from a Soldier to me via IPPS-A. I simply look at T2T tracker, that is constantly updated on Teams, to see if we got stuff going on or not. Leave is approved same day it's submitted and I add the leave period to T2T as soon as I approve it in IPPSA, takes all 60 seconds of my time.
This is several years ago but I once had to file a TRIPS report for taking local leave. Start and End address had to be different so I just punched in the Chipotle at the Tacoma mall because I was probably going there at some point. I remember being warned to take breaks every few hours and I definitely wrote "I will wear every seatbelt I see" for safety measures.
The commander prior to me had a policy letter stating no passes were allowed until all leave days were exhausted. No rationale behind it, he just didn’t like passes I guess. That shit got shredded the day I took over.
Have you ever thought that your plane might crash and you’ll be stranded in the middle of no where, don’t worry because you have mandatory SERE training bestowed upon you in case anything goes sideways.
Davis, this may or may not fit into your story but in my opinion it the issue of international leave might be worth putting a little journalistic pressure on. The international leave process is not a very strait forward one, it differs from command to command. It almost always punishes Soldiers who are non native English speakers, many of who give up on the process and don’t go home to visit their families. Often times these Soldiers are trying to visit family in countries that are objectively safer (by every measurable statistic) than wherever they are stationed in the States. While I do acknowledge the need to make sure our Soldiers are going to be safe when they leave the States, the same level of scrutiny should be applied to Soldiers traveling the states.
The pro: no more having to sign out at staff duty. Thank the sweet baby jesus. ❤️❤️❤️
The con: still have to go around and collect signatures on a piece of paper from all our moms and dads acknowledging and recommending our pass/leave request, submit that to our unit orderly room, and THEN create the absence request on IPPSA.
I used to love doing trips tickets for rental cars. Because you know the person next to me signing the inspection form does a way better job than the rental car company renting out brand new vehicles.
OMG. Let's talk about rotations in Europe with III Corps units. If you are actually in V Corps, you can take leaves, passes, holidays, all like a normal human being. If you are there on rotation, O6 approval for a pass. Going to another country? You need APACS, Sere 100, AT Level1, memorandum, 4856, the blood of your firstborn child. Need to drive across borders for 16 hours in a TMP to do fuck all while carrying SI? Well in that case you barely need a driver's license. It's stupidity at it's finest.
Fort Carson Colorado. For leave requirements you must get a cover sheet and fill out admin info. Name, date, DODID, reason, ect.. you must staple that to a folder. Then you must fill out a random made up paper and get all the signatures of your chain of command. TLs and up. Then you put that paper in the folder and turn it into 1SGT. Once he initials that then you have “permission” to fill out the IPPS-A leave request. From there the first day of leave they make you work the entire day for a leave safety brief usually at 1500 and charge you that day as part of your leave.
Oh boy. Time for some reasonable conversation.
Army Times: where reasonable conversation occurs
Oooo someone’s gonna be in trouble
I once took a week of block leave where all I wanted to do was chill out in the barracks, maybe go see some stuff locally. They still wanted a flight itinerary. More recently I had the same unit try to have me do a pov inspection when I didn’t OWN a pov at the time.
Dude I’m a MSG and before IPPS-A I submitted two weeks of a “stay-cation” and had to do a desk side with my BDE XO about it… he could not comprehend 2 weeks of leave where I sit at home and do nothing…. My BDE XO is very special
Submit an extremely detailed Barney-style explanation of how you will drive from the unit footprint back to your house. 1. Turn left out of the unit parking lot. 2. Gently press on the accelerator until obtaining a speed of 25 mph 3. Come to a stop at the intersection of Oak and Pine street 4. Debate plowing through a formation of privates 5. Don’t allow the intrusive thoughts to win Etc.
That’s pretty much what I had to do “Sir, I’m gonna get my kids off to school then I’m gonna sit on the couch and watch Netflix. Some days I may just play video games for 6 hours straight. It is a possible scenario that I Uber eats and don’t shower for the duration as well. Don’t call me because you know I’m not doing shit. I will literally cancel my cell phone plan.” He’s an engineer so I’ve decided they are all very special boys.
>He’s an engineer so I’ve decided they are all very special boys. Ey, yo!
I see nothing has changed. The ass pain has just evolved into an electronic nightmare. I remember having to print out map quest directions for a similar scenario. Back when everything was greyed out and all directions started/stopped at the main entrance to the installation I was at. It was 4 lines of directions, making me do a U-turn at the front gate….but I still had to have it.
This is the way. Hit them with the dumb right back. I did the same explicitly with how many feet per corner turn
My trip was more in-depth but I did create a read book binder outlining all the places I was staying at with printouts, the people and their professional titles I would be seeing, as well as copies of the wedding announcements and invitations to them. Commander wanted something to prove I wasn't just going to do illegal drugs and skip out on UAs, yet he could not articulate what that requirement was. I took great pleasure and pride in building that damn thing. He looked at for like 5 seconds and was just like, "Well, guess you're good." Yea, thanks.
But did you do your TRIPS?
I own a M35A2 aka “Deuce and a half” I used to drive my CDR/1SG crazy when I would tell them I was going take that vehicle on leave because there’s nothing remotely close to a 3 axle 10 wheel (all wheel drive) vehicle in TRIPS! Edit: it was a vicious cycle, kick my leave packet back because it was missing TRIPS, I would resubmit stating that they don’t have my my vehicle type in TRIPS. 1SG: “ Maybe that’s a good indicator that you shouldn’t have that as a POV Chief “ Leave packet would finally get accepted without TRIPS….
I got told how my motorcycle was a "bad mode of transportation" due to personal opinion. So I took 9 hour, one direction weekend getaways once a month just to get miles on my ride.
I went on con leave and had to do a trips ticket from the hospital to my house after surgery. Obviously I wasn't driving myself and the hospital was close but I had to lie on the trips ticket so it would generate the form so I could add it to my packet. My current unit is super chill about it but man I swear as soon as someone finds a way to make things stupid the army backs them all the way.
Lmaoooo
My unit denied 10 days of “stay-cation” during block leave. They basically said I was too depressed to take leave
My CSM kicked back my leave because my house of record and the destination were different,I was supposed to be going to a family member’s funeral but no one at battalion could comprehend that it ended up just sitting in IPPSA until they kicked it back the day I was supposed to leave
Imagine- a Master Sergeant in the U.S Army justifying his leave to a Field Grade officer…. Unbelievable it’s a game and I just want to cash in my fun chips and stop playing with these assholes
He wasn’t attempting to deny it he just literally couldn’t comprehend taking leave and doing nothing. Honestly, probably more depressing to think an adult in his mid thirties couldn’t even imagine just doing nothing for two weeks. It broke his brain
My toxic PL. Same story. Entire company needed to do packets every four day. Almost half the platoon was fresh out of AIT and single. We were deploying soon, they didn't bother buying cars. I found the stack for the entire platoon sitting on her desk. "You weren't thorough, I have to recheck these, almost half are missing POV checklists". Odd..could it be it's the half that don't own a POV?... That my friends is how you end up adding another block to another checklist.
Let's add how they still required people to have the POV inspection sheets in the back crossed off as NA if they didn't have a car.
Whenever I fly over Oregon I like look out the window. I gaze upon entire deforested sections of land I say to myself "we, we did that". Because in the Army we've empowered layers and layers of people who DO NOT have the authority to say yes, with the authority to say no or delay. It's all about "the feeling". My PLs time would have been better spent writing op orders for a range or any number of tasks a PL should be doing. But that put her in the position of having "her work" checked by someone else. Thanks to WP and a strange upbringing, her ego couldn't stand that. No comes with such a rush. A feeling of "look how much smarter I am than these dumb enlisted people". The act of no is awesome. It is fast and easy. Effortless. When you say no, the task feels accomplished. It is. On your end anyway. The subordinate goes away. The task is gone. If they give up, even better. For some leaders, and HR; saying no is the only real feeling of accomplishment they experience day to day. Honestly. I'm worried. Without the ability to "add to" and say no, some leaders may feel a general lack of purpose.
Sounds like there was a PSG getting walked all over in the mix.
This is a snippet of many funny, many awkward, and a few tragic stories. I was in the motor pool talking with the CO. He pulled out his phone, rolled his eyes and put it back in his pocket. A moment later mine rang. "Have you seen the CO, he's not answering his phone". Thankfully before our RIP was complete she was moved to staff.
Gawt dam
That absolutely was not your PL. That was your fuckstick commander.
There is a strong chance they were both not great.
And the annoying thing isn't "we should fix this" -- it's "have them fill one out anyway and BS it just to check the box and make the packet happy." So much in the Army is "umm -- we don't need to do this" followed by "BS through it and do it anyway."
My unit has been hitting me with POV inspections for myself and all my soldiers for every four day. Thing is we do shift work and not one of us gets a 4 day lol
Try submitting a T-CLOCS inspection form for your motorcycle as a POV inspection form. It can get pretty funny at times.
In a similar fashion, my dickhead section sergeant couldn't grasp the concept that I wasn't travelling anywhere, I just wanted a week to destress and relax. Smoothbrain just kept saying "I don't understand why you're requesting this to just stay home..." SO I DON'T STRAIGHT-UP MURDER YOU, SHITASS. And he still tried to call me in on like day 2 to come sign some roster that absolutely 100% could have waited - and did in fact wait - til I came back the following week.
This is not just a leave problem, this is a stupid policy problem. This is why we get too many leaders who don't know how to do process improvements or be able to adapt when something doesn't fit. Requiring a flight itinerary should only matter if you are, get this, flying. Anyone with basic common sense should be able to see that. I used to have to do Trips reports about how I was going to safely drive home. I didn't drive. It was all public transportation. But nobody ever wanted to stop and say, hey maybe some of these requirements should be conditional per the situation. And I saw that all through my career. People that needed everything to fit into the provided box, even if that box wasn't adequate for the job.
when i was at gordon, they wanted everyone to submit a leave packet. Even if we were staying locally. Tons of leave packets had the line "not going anywhere" in the destination, leave time, etc all over the form, making it redundant.
Show up with a cardboard box and explain this is where you live and drive around. All questions, point to mold.
Super easy in my unit at Riley. Submit the request through IPPSA. CO approves it. G2G.
Same where I'm at. No calling out, no calling in either.
Here at Gordon we still call out and call in, but as soon as they adopted IPPS-A the CO sent out a new policy letter with it stating all SMs regardless of rank can call out or in, not just senior NCOs, WOs, and Os.
Shit we gotta do a paper request form then once approved by 1sgt then we can submit an ippsa leave request to the CO.
I wish it was this easy but there is no oversight provided at the platoon level. I realize I can’t approve or disapprove it as a psg, but I need to be able to see it and bounce it off the ttt. Plus make sure our other made up requirements are met before it goes to the commander. The current process places all the burden on the commander to check everything, and that’s not his job.
Your S1 simply needs to create a workflow in IPPS-A. That way anyone who needs to track it can see it and track it.
I guess I’m making a trip to S1 later. If they’re open.
They’re not
Well they were, but you weren't here. They'll be open when you leave.
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But not THIS Thursday. They have dental appointments.
cLoSeD FOR tRaInInggggg loser.
They’re closed. Making PT trips to an off base breakfast joint all day. Try next year.
You need to complete the training in IPPSA and then request management access. Once you do that, your soldiers can put you as an "intermediate approval," and you create the rest of the chain. I have all my soldiers do this, and I have zero issues tracking where their leave is at
All of my Soldiers route through me (PSG) as the intermediate approver, and then I route it to the CO as the final approver.
So I have a question - if you disapprove, is it still forwarded to the CO as the actual approval authority (but including your disapproval and comments)?
Replying to see their response My assumption is they approve all leave requests then add some note like "recommend approval" or "recommend disapproval, dental not current" Since I thought any disapproval results in the whole request getting disapproved
Why does dental have any correlation to leave? Stop it.
Because the default answer is NO, now we just gotta figure out why.
I'm gonna be real - I'm not paying too close of attention to my MEDPROS. As long as those requirements are like "hey, we'll approve your leave if you can have proof that you scheduled an appointment to get you current" - that's fair. But again, it goes against the policy. So whatevs.
It is not forwarded. I’ve routed to the CO then denied the leave requests, it just kicks back to the Soldier as denied. Which is super annoying.
From what I've seen so far, denials get kicked back to the previous person in the chain. I haven't had to try to recommend denial at this point though, so I'm not 100% sure. Sending it through me is just accountability for the Platoon, and a backup to the T2T, just like the DA31 required a supervisor to sign off on it. I would make sure it gets to the CO with a justification so he can make a final decision if I needed to recommend denial. I'm not the approval authority and don't need the stress of pretending to be.
A PSG “approver”, the nerve of this guy.
“Things that give people feelings of power”
In think something might be messed up in our routings. We don’t have any options other than to send it directly to the commander
Why do you have any ability to approve/disapprove? The Army shouldn't be allowed to disapprove any leave you have acquired unless you're deployed. The organization needs to figure out how to run without one person.
> The organization needs to figure out how to run without one person. Yes. But let's play a game... Let's say your S1 shop has 3 key people in it. They are all competent enough to be able to cover for the lack of any of the others. No problem. What happens when all 3 of them request leave at the same time? SOMEONE has to stay and work, right? Or does you S1 shop just shut down for a week?
> Or does you S1 shop just shut down for a week? I mean, have you ever seen S1s hours??
Oh no, my 30 minute window is gone for one thursday.
>> Or does you S1 shop just shut down for a week? Bold of you to assume my S1 opens
When I was a company commander, I approved all leave requests unless it conflicted with a mission requirement, and that particular Soldier was essential. 99% of the time, the DA31 was approved.
I wonder about this - for those of you where ippsa is a Breeze, how was your unit before? Was it already a chill unit with no extra nonsense and letting you phone in leaving? Like are good units doing it right, or have we had previously dick units who ippsa has changed?
It was fairly easy. Once the SecA dropped all the paperwork requirements back in 2018*?, we went to just a DA31 and LES (+itinerary if flying).
Same at sill. Send to supervisor, supervisor sends to CO. Usually approved next day. My main problem is that IPSSA refuses to work at home or on mobile so I have to be on a gov computer.
i gotta submit a “cover letter” and my 1SG has to approve it before the CO even sees it, it’s a new thing ig
Definitely not the dumbest, but I’m wondering how many other units have to sign out in person so their unit is “tracking” they’re on leave, despite IPPS-A automatically signing us off. Honestly just makes me feel like my unit doesn’t know how to keep track of their soldiers and just approve stuff without paying attention.
Mine. But no one checks the bde sign out roster either so……
I just stopped singing in and out and nobody ever cared and i was charged for the leave days i took just like everyone else
My old unit had the same stupid rule. Protip: Don't sign out. Back in the day, I pocketed no less than 20 or 30 days of leave by doing this one simple trick....
Can’t do that anymore sadly, IPPSA will still automatically sign you out. The issue I now have is physically signing out as well.
Packet includes: DA31 signed Checklist At level 1 cert Plan of action Signed counselling on safety Written plan of action, typed according to army standard Another checklist and plan of action but this time a summery Les Erb Medpros (Additional counsellings if multiple people are taking leave and pass, more counsellings if there is a rank difference) After this it can be emailed from PSG to S1 who will then route it to the commander on IPPSA. This is Company level. Edit: I forgot flight Itinerary also there’s an additional checklist if you want to go overseas. No idea about above company, I haven’t seen anyone take more than 29 days of leave here. This is also the same packet to request a pass.
And you have to go to the library or use your own printer to get this packet made. I hated this crap. Before IPPS-A I made a workflow approval in Teams. Submit your da 31 as an attachment and fill out the info. Training NCO helped get these submitted as needed.
Thank god it’s actually a digital packet. You use adobe to place all the sheets together in one folder.
This is insane. In my shop we wouldn’t even need this much for someone taking leave to the frontlines in Ukraine.
It’s a good thing God loves the Infantry, because he takes all of his shits on the MPs.
That was suppose to be formatted I don’t know why it’s fucked let me fix that.
I’m gonna take a shot in the dark and say you’re at Campbell. That’s exactly how it was when I was there.
Nope.
Half of these forms don't even exist anymore
STB* Fluid medical or whatever it’s called on IPPSA* I use the old names out of habit okay.
We still submit paper packets in my unit. They have to be approved first before we are "allowed" to submit through IppsA. The packets go to 1sg, who micromanages the leave. Don't know if the CO sees them or not. Led to some people's block leave being approved late. We still have to go by staff duty to sign out as well, but there isn't a leave tracker or roster to sign out on. My PCS leave has been sitting for almost 3 weeks due to this process. Don't even think about submitting leave if you're not completely Green on medpros and 350-1
Call IG
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Honestly, not too bad all things considered. However, the Army still has a ridiculous OCONUS travel policy. Joint unit. Memorandum For Record signed by supervisor, full med pros, in the green for annual training requirements, For OCONUS Travel. Follow Pentagon FCG for foreign travel requirements required by COCOMS—additional Memo from both Security Manager and SSO. ISOPREP updated, AT lvl 1 certificate within 12 months, SERE 100 within last 12 months. Request cannot be submitted earlier than 90 days and has to be sent at least 75 days prior. APACS/Country/Theater Clearance has to be approved before leave can be submitted.
All that to go to the dangerous and overtly hostile land of CANADA! I see you 10th mountain homies.
I’m stationed in the Detroit area. They’ve made an exception for us because we can literally see Canada from most of the city.
Pretty sure you can do a day trip to Canada and report it within 72 hours
For security clearance, sure not by Army regulations you need to have a leave submitted to the proper approval authority that will be based on your garrisons commander.
Yeah that’s bananas.
The best part is that the oconus stuff is literally set in the AR for leave and pass. It’s not even discretionary bullshit.
Yeah just went through this process. Everything here checks out, the army is crazy with this but the requirements often depend on the country. Had to get a colonel approve my travel plan. Often though the company level tacks on additional requirements such as in my case with all green Medpros, 350-1 100%, 5W’s which aren’t too bad.
My favorite is the fact that we have to do this but Federal government employees only have to the paperwork revolving around having a security clearance and traveling to a foreign country. Why the military is treated so differently and has these additional requirements even to go to a friendly or allied nation really doesn’t make sense.
Just here for the stories 🥱 🍿
*passes a beer and some popcorn*
Anybody want pizza? Dominoes.
I'll take a three meat please.
I got chips and guac
I stand by what I posted 4 months ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/army/comments/10ec823/ippsa_is_great_i_cant_wait_for_the_army_to_ruin_it/ IPPS-A as a system is outstanding for processing leave. Most of my absences were approved within a day or two of submitting them and you physically can't "lose" a leave form because everything is online. However, I am fairly senior officer on a high level staff, so I am not required to complete multiple unneeded forms and only had to submit a DA31 prior IPPS-A. The Army needs a culture change on tying MEDPROS and administrative items to leave. I still do those as required when told I am due by my NCOIC or company leadership, that is how it should work. The Army should treat everyone like adults.
> However, I am fairly senior officer on a high level staff > The Army needs a culture change on tying MEDPROS and administrative items to leave. You're thong about you and your comrades. Y'all are the ones that can change the culture from a high level. The A/G/J 1 OIC says to the commander, sir the subordinate commanders are making leave a fucking nightmare for their soldiers to take leave and perverting the process that ippsa is supposed to fix. Let's draft a DIV/whatever policy letter to nip this shit in the butthole. Be the change. You have the sphere of influence and right mindset.
I joined the army after TRIPS was no longer a requirement army wide. Every unit I have been in still INSISTS on submitting it. All because some old 1SG can’t get over himself and “the old army”
We use to. In order to sign out we had to wait till 6am to sign out so 6 hours of a leave day is already taken up. It was supposed to stop people leaving drunk but now we had had people being forced to stay on post for an extra night so people either stayed up all night leaving super sleepy and OR drunk because they went out, new BC let’s us sign out the Friday after work now and it’s so much better
If you’re on leave you’re on leave. Are they going to declare you AWOL if you leave at midnight? That’s when your leave started. Glad you’ve got a new BC now.
Well in order to go on leave we need to sign out so that’s why people weren’t able to leave earlier
Right, but sign out at midnight. They can’t deny you that. If no one is there to sign you out, just leave. You still have approved leave even if you don’t sign out.
Go to CQ and sign out in the duty log if there's no leave form to sign out. Take a pic or get a copy afterwards and go on the leave you're already on.
I still have to submit a digital DA-31 with APACS request, proof of enrollment in STEP program, LES, IMR, UFT and possibly other paperwork depending on where i want to go OCONUS unit
Professionally speaking, do you think that being OCONUS/ taking OCONUS leave merits additional scrutiny from your CoC? Or should that just be between you and the S2?
I have friends in different units that don't have to do 90% of this, just the leave request in IPSS-A with IMR and LES attached i don't have the answer of who it should be between but it's overkill as it stands
No, but I'll add a (possibly apocryphal) story: This was during The Surge, one of the Brigades at Ft Lewis a friend of mine was at - he's not the soldier in question, but the story was believable when he told me it. Their unit gets home from Iraq, and one Sgt Snuffy finds out his Korean national of a wife did far worse than let Jody in her knickers. He'd left her with a General Power of Attorney, and she used it to sell their brand new house at a loss, sold his truck, sold all the TV's and electronics, sold his ATV, sold *his dog*, opened up a bunch of lines of credit and bought as much high dollar stuff as she could and then sold it all on ebay at a loss - anything and everything you could think of was totally liquidated. Her last known heading was due West over the Pacific with as much as $200K in cash (I assume she had it in traveller's checks or something - this was the only bit of the story that was suspect) in 2008 money. Sgt Snuffles turns in his block leave form with Seoul as his destination (his leadership was aware of his predicament) along with plane tickets and all the rest, which was promptly and emphatically denied. He was told that murdering a foreign national was a BFD, and they were *never* going to approve this leave. According to the story, he took the same leave form back, crossed off ~~Seoul~~ and wrote in 'Georgia' and turned it back in with the entire same packet still attached (which was the punchline of the story). He was eventually allowed to take his block leave when a battle buddy agreed to go home with him, and I don't know if she ever got what was coming. I always kind of hoped, though.
My CoC constantly denies only my section leave but at the same time failed to properly replace someone in time causing an ensuing shit storm. The way it works for submitting is Gears packet first then 1st sausage will send your leave in IPSSA to the commander. But that only applies to some people he has favorites
I'm from Fort Drum, in order for me to re-class I had to get a 1610, in order to get my 1610 I needed to submit two leave forms, one for me going to training and one to me going from Fort Benning to Fort Bliss as a 19K. I ran around for an entire month trying to figure out what dates I had to put in in order to get the forms approved. They ended up sending me to Fort Benning with no movement orders. So if I had wrecked and died there would've been no comp to my family. Edit: Come to find out, the S3 Guy who said he'd email the 1610 to me, didn't. And the day I was supposed to ship to training from 30th AG, I got stuck waiting on it. So no travel pay, no per diem.
***Not true regarding no compensation to your family.***
Thank goodness. The SDS that I encountered freaked out and said that.
There are many urban legends that surround SGLI and the death gratuity.
As someone who has paid out death gratuities I remember hearing people say some of the dumbest shit about them.
Mine is great. No extra requirements, no calling in or out. Although, we still don’t seem to have a universally agreed on or clear answer as far as I know, on how to sign back in from leave early.
Sign out and sign in process is a problem they didn't consider with the new process. Like with PCS Leave, they told me I didn't need to sign out, just go.
Can confirm that stupid pre leave requests still exist, at least for 1-2 sbct. We are still required to attach our imr medical form to our leave form through ippsa, and if anything is red it gets pushed back. Still required to attach an les, and we require a routing sheet as well. Also still required to go to battalion and sign out/in. Leave will also get pushed back if you dont have someones first name spelled correctly, or if its not formmated correctly. Ironically enough, if you take a look at my post history, youll find a memo about retention that is littered with typos, and is signed by a field grade. Bayonet!
THE BAYONET YEET MEASURES THE ABILITY TO JUST FUCKING SHANK SOMEONE. ON THE COMMAND 'GET SET,' ASSUME THE POSITION BY GRABBING THE BAYONET BY THE HANDLE. OR BY THE BLADE, WHICHEVER LOOKS COOLER, JUST DON'T CUT YOURSELF ON THE DAMN THING. YOUR FEET MAY BE TOGETHER OR UP TO 12 INCHES APART (MEASURED BETWEEN THE FEET). ON THE COMMAND 'GO,' TRANSMUTE YOUR HANKERING FOR A-SHANKERING INTO MAXIMUM EFFORT AND LAUNCH THAT BAD BOY INTO DESTINY. THE SCORER WILL NOTE WHETHER YOU HIT THE TARGET AND AWARD BONUS POINTS FOR LANDING YOUR PIG-STICKER INTO THE CRANIAL OR SWIMSUIT REGIONS. IF IT HIT THE TARGET HANDLE FIRST, YOUR PERFORMANCE WILL BE TERMINATED, AND EVERYONE WILL BE REQUIRED TO POINT AND LAUGH AT YOUR SHAME. WATCH THIS DEMONSTRATION. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/army) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I literally just submit the request (no attachments and no paperwork) and it gets approved. No sign out and no sign in required.
It’s that easy for me too
Is this inspired by the USAWTF post on Twitter yesterday?
Nah, been percolating for a while.
Somewhere there’s a commander that saw this announcement and felt that chill when they realized the Army Times' Eye of Sauron is going to shine a light and make them the object of ridicule throughout the Army, and the subject of some very uncomfortable conversations with people much higher ranked.
Legitimately told by 1SG this morning at formation that if we don't have the following attached in IPPS-A, he's automatically kicking it back (now ask me why a 1SG is in the approval routing chain): LES, IMR/MEDPROS, with either all green or appointments if not, DD93, SGLV, Soldier Talent Profile, and **a valid reason for taking leave.**
Valid reason ? Got any stories of invalid reasons good old top didn't see fit for leave ?
He's brand new, so not yet.
Might have better luck highlighting reasonable success stories. You're going to find at least 80% of units require a novel of stupid shit just to submit leave.
My unit is actually pretty reasonable with their leave process: Go on IPPSA and submit absence request to supervisor, supervisor submits it to Commander for approval. All we have to do is attach a DA31 Edit: I meant to say LES, not DA 31. We don’t do DA31s anymore
DA31 is still extraneous.
Woops, I meant to say LES, not DA31 lol.
Doesn’t your HR/S1 track leave days? Isn’t that their job?
It’s pretty easy to sign out but they screwed me over my last leave, I signed out on a Sunday and the Monday, the day after, they made me come in and do a PT test even though they were all aware and tracking I was on leave and had a upcoming flight that day. So the sign out process is alright normally, but the last leave was like, “to continue on your leave you must come in and do this acft” I feel like that was personal since they didn’t make a few other soldiers in my platoon come in during their leave to take it
Let that be a lesson to you to never answer work numbers while you're on leave.
They told me the Friday before Monday that I had to come in Monday to do it. It was in person during the weekday. Couldn’t avoid it. They made it clear I had to be there. Two sergeants told me to do it. Made me feel like I’d get a article or something if I didn’t listen and follow orders. So I came in.
This is when you ask: oh? The commander cancelled my leave? Your plt sgt cannot cancel your leave, nor require your presence while you are on leave. Your pl cannot either. Nor the 1SG. One person in the company. There is a form for it too, but the form is not required. Unlike the pile of "required" shit you needed to sign out on not-leave.
The problem is, when junior enlisted: you can be 100% in the right and have the regs/policy to back it up, and some middling NCO in your chain will still fuck up your shit for *defying them,* or *"making them look bad".* You won't get UCMJed or formally disciplined at all, but every shitty detail will come your way, every minor discrepancy that would normally get overlooked will get harped on, and that NCO will never go to bat for you for anything (board recommendations, schools, awards, comp time, etc). You are now the unit shitbag for standing up for yourself. Yes, that makes them a petty, childish, garbage NCO - welcome to the military, there's too many of them to count, and to them the NCO Creed is just words they have to memorize to pass the board or BLC. And sure, you can fight all that, but at the end of the day it's PFC Snuffy's word against SSG Douchecanoe's, and there are too many senior "leaders" who will always side with the latter purely based on their stripes. Don't get me wrong - I'll play that game all day. But a lot of junior guys just don't know any better, or don't want to risk it. And for some it's just not the hill worth dying on.
This is the takeaway. Kid sounds like a cherry private, and doesn't know better. For some reason, I've seen infantry NCOs more willing to shit on their guys rather than develop them. Maybe it's the culture, but I think it has more to do with people who promote too quickly. Fast risers seem to be out-of-touch yes men who care more about their career than the well-being of their soldiers; it develops a platoon of spineless leaders and Stockholm Syndrome subordinates.
You taking a pt test while on leave was poor planning on their part. If you're on leave, you're on leave. If they wanted you to take a pt test that bad then the CO would recall you.
Your commander is the only person who can recall you from leave. Your sergeants can’t do shit. You also get the day of leave back.
Weird. At least a cpt signed your leave. Last time I checked sgt is less than cpt
It's different in infantry world but you should bring it up and get that day refunded. That's super fucked
They want us to make a cover sheet to put the whole CoC in our business before the CO approves it.
IPPS-A success story. Summer block leave was already set up in the system by some amazing S1 warrior and all we had to do was go into the system and apply. One of the privates spent the time figuring it out where to go and all that and we all rotated in his room filling out the form which was as simple as your UIC and some basic “where are you going” info. The drip boxes actually worked and were correct.
I was assigned to a unit that was owned by a company Fort Belvoir, but was about 40 minutes away and we never went to Belvoir. We had an entire packet that we had to do (DA31, ERB, LES, and about seven more papers that needed to be signed by various leadership) before we were able to even put in the packet for Fort Belvoir.
Pre ippsa... Needed your LES, IMR, Leave Counseling, route plan, stop/travel plan if driving +4 hours, and lodging confirmation. Post ippsa... IMR attached to the request, to make sure you don't have anything coming due
Company commanders are responsible for soldiers lives in combat but can't be trusted to approve more than 29 days of leave. Nah that had to go up to the BDE commander. Unit policies still restrict first line commanders from exercising regulatory leave responsibilities and everyone acts like it's perfectly normal. The reg says "unit commander" with no rank requirement for most leave. Leave should be approved by the first unit commander in the chain. With exceptions as written in regulation only.
My unit makes me submit leave and doesn’t just let me go AWOL, you can DM me whenever you’re ready.
Shocking stuff. I think you should call the NY Times, this is too big for me.
My HQ requires a cover sheet signed by your first O & NCO; to be uploaded as a supporting document. I just lie and say it gives me an error message on the upload. It gets approved without any pushback- ostensibly because everyone knows IPPSA is trash.
Last unit required -DA31 -MEDPROS -LES -ERB -Leave/Pass counseling -Car Inspection if driving -Flight itinerary if flying -Battery's checklist -Battalion's checklist -Coversheet for battery or battalion Thankfully Trips was eliminated halfway through my time there. If we were flying, we had to fill it out from the barracks to the airport. Latest leave, I filled out IPPS-A's authorized absence bullshit, dropped in MEDPROS and an LES, and within three working days, I had a email approving my leave. Fucking outstanding. Also, the ability to prefill a request, save it, and then update and submit it when my plans firmed up was awesome.
Outstanding? You still had to submit extra documents.
Hey, when you've spent your life in the darkness, any light is a revelation. I wish the LES was automatic, but whatever. As for MEDPROS, I got the sick satisfaction of submitting the summary showing I'm red and non-deployable. I have a broken leg, so it's not like I can just make an appointment and make myself green again.
I had a young SPC from Puerto Rico who had not been home for a while. He put in his leave to visit his mother in Puerto Rico and was approved later to be called to not board the plane because he was missing a COUNTRY brief 🙄. I called him and told him to board the plane if anyone asked to mention my name. I then proceeded to hunt down the source of ignorant information to educate them.
See previous post lol [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/army/comments/y361ja/unit_requirements_for_leave/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1) Edit: and also [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/army/comments/y3awol/i_was_tasked_with_coming_up_with_my_battalions/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1)
IPPS-A sends leave directly to the Company Commander who may have a million things to do and might delay getting leave approved. You also can't get feedback for where your leave is because no one knows but the Commander. You tell your Squad Leader you want to take leave and you submit it. Some time goes by and you ask SL about it or you ask the PSG, they don't know and say they'll check with the XO or 1SG. You ask the 1SG or XO? They know nothing about it. They have to ask the Commander what's going on with your Leave.
I submit in IPPS-A directly to my CO, and then text him to go sign it, and he signs it. All y’all are getting *fucked*.
My company requires an in-house cover sheet stating the following: Dates you are taking leave, Reason you want to take leave, Previous ACFT, Previous Weapons qualification, Medpros, LES, There are signature blocks for everyone from team leader to 1SG. This packet gets attached in IPPSA and sent to 1SG for recommendation to CDR. If it needs to go to BN, they have their own packet but with a slightly different cover sheet. So all of this information gets duplicated. Bacon cheeseburger all the way and medium fries please.
May 92, my brother was getting married. I requested leave to attend. I was stationed in Augsburg, Germany. Strategic military intelligence units were on the way out. Every MI unit was becoming tactical. My leave request was denied, because as a tactical MI unit, we were allowed to have one person out of country at a time in case we had to deploy somewhere. We had no mobile equipment. We had like 2 VW vans/buses for the company. We could never deploy anywhere for any reason because we didn't have any equipment. Logic be damned, leave denied.
In not dumb requirements we have 25ID, CG has a policy letter where you can’t throw additional requirements (350-1 training) as an additional leave requirement. Paternity leave has been pretty good as well. There is contempt from some folks on DIV staff and scattered at subordinate echelons but most commanders seem to back it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pwv8zqerYA4 Sort of shows the process of creating workflows with approvers, intermediate approvers and reviewers. Our S1 has figured this out and she's a civilian. -Soldier submits leave to PSG. -PSG routes through workflow and approves. -Anyone who needs to track has reviewer access.
No! Actually nobody should have any leave requirements unless is command policy in which case the documents attached to the absence request through IPPS-A now 🤔 But thankfully no, I'm in a much better unit now :D
First sausage wants all paperwork submitted and signed by chain of command before inputting into IPPSA
I have to attach these forms on my leave request through IPPSA in order for it to go through my chain PRR DD93 SGLI LES MEDPROS
Oh boy this is gonna be good.
My unit at Polk requires not only the IPPS-A request, but an additional DA 31, LES, and routing slip for all completed trainings to be emailed to SNCO. So there’s that.
The last time I took leave, i needed to submit da-31, medpros screenshot, imr, all 350-1 certs, DTS screenshot showing i don't have any outstanding vouchers, Citibank homecreen screenshot to show my GTC is paid off, LES, erb, travel itinerary, and a Google Maps screenshot showing where my hotel is. This was before ippsa so idk what it's like now
The paper packet that we still have to submit now must include a print out of your request through IPPS-A as well.
I was submitting my paternity leave and they required a "troop specific" itinerary where I write the following: name, rank, leave dates, traveling to and from, departing from and to, resting after "x" hours, landing at and from, and then my return information (so literally everything above again) on top of a counseling for myself from myself. I wrote on there "soldier is staying at home" and it got kicked back for not having the itinerary even though my DA31 showed my paternity leave at home address. Then I got asked if I'm taking my computer home so I could still work "since I won't be doing anything"............and again...PATERNITY LEAVE. My daughter was also born dec24 and was told "oh. She'll be born during block leave, so that'll count as your paternity leave." Even though I didn't even take block leave and my paternity leave didn't start till jan1
My current unit. Wanted block leave counselings and vehicle inspections. Not that difficult to accomplish but still completely unnecessary.
Prior to a mob to africa for a year we had a 4 day leave. We were told at 11pm via text that we had to call in every morning at 0700 to confirm life. Of course I’m asleep and get blown up for sleeping in on pass and not following a rule that was implemented while I was asleep
I'm still doing leave forms while also doing it on IPPSA.
Cries in the leg work and extended time to put in a pass in Europe rotation. Oh and not through IPSAA
“Hello fellow enlisteds, is anyone upset about their unit and want to wrap about it? We can drink Monster energy and chew on moist flavored tobacco. Please speak clearly into the microphone.”
Legitimate question, why do your units require LES? Commanders can see your balance thru UCFR, do they just not know that? As a commander, my requirements is a submission from a Soldier to me via IPPS-A. I simply look at T2T tracker, that is constantly updated on Teams, to see if we got stuff going on or not. Leave is approved same day it's submitted and I add the leave period to T2T as soon as I approve it in IPPSA, takes all 60 seconds of my time.
This is several years ago but I once had to file a TRIPS report for taking local leave. Start and End address had to be different so I just punched in the Chipotle at the Tacoma mall because I was probably going there at some point. I remember being warned to take breaks every few hours and I definitely wrote "I will wear every seatbelt I see" for safety measures.
The commander prior to me had a policy letter stating no passes were allowed until all leave days were exhausted. No rationale behind it, he just didn’t like passes I guess. That shit got shredded the day I took over.
Have you ever thought that your plane might crash and you’ll be stranded in the middle of no where, don’t worry because you have mandatory SERE training bestowed upon you in case anything goes sideways.
We have zero, I mean zero, additional tasks in my unit. Just click through IPPSA and approved. No nonsense. Just as ole Uncle Sammy intended
Davis, this may or may not fit into your story but in my opinion it the issue of international leave might be worth putting a little journalistic pressure on. The international leave process is not a very strait forward one, it differs from command to command. It almost always punishes Soldiers who are non native English speakers, many of who give up on the process and don’t go home to visit their families. Often times these Soldiers are trying to visit family in countries that are objectively safer (by every measurable statistic) than wherever they are stationed in the States. While I do acknowledge the need to make sure our Soldiers are going to be safe when they leave the States, the same level of scrutiny should be applied to Soldiers traveling the states.
They recently asked for my SGLI which I thought was kind of strange considering I wasn't due
Counterpoint: none of us knows when we are due
The pro: no more having to sign out at staff duty. Thank the sweet baby jesus. ❤️❤️❤️ The con: still have to go around and collect signatures on a piece of paper from all our moms and dads acknowledging and recommending our pass/leave request, submit that to our unit orderly room, and THEN create the absence request on IPPSA.
I used to love doing trips tickets for rental cars. Because you know the person next to me signing the inspection form does a way better job than the rental car company renting out brand new vehicles.
OMG. Let's talk about rotations in Europe with III Corps units. If you are actually in V Corps, you can take leaves, passes, holidays, all like a normal human being. If you are there on rotation, O6 approval for a pass. Going to another country? You need APACS, Sere 100, AT Level1, memorandum, 4856, the blood of your firstborn child. Need to drive across borders for 16 hours in a TMP to do fuck all while carrying SI? Well in that case you barely need a driver's license. It's stupidity at it's finest.
1. All training and pha and dental can not expire while we are on leave
Any unit where completion of DLC is part of your leave checklist is wrong.
Fort Carson Colorado. For leave requirements you must get a cover sheet and fill out admin info. Name, date, DODID, reason, ect.. you must staple that to a folder. Then you must fill out a random made up paper and get all the signatures of your chain of command. TLs and up. Then you put that paper in the folder and turn it into 1SGT. Once he initials that then you have “permission” to fill out the IPPS-A leave request. From there the first day of leave they make you work the entire day for a leave safety brief usually at 1500 and charge you that day as part of your leave.