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5.3. Restoring Leave Lost on 1 October.
5.3.1. The maximum amount of SLA leave that may be carried forward is the leave balance
at the end of the fiscal year following the end of the SLA qualifying period not to exceed 120
days. (T-1).
5.3.2. The maximum amount will be reduced to a new level whenever the leave balance
drops below the previously set level. If, at any time, the leave balance drops to or goes below
60 days, then there is no longer any SLA protected leave. Therefore, the actual maximum
leave that can be carried forward into succeeding fiscal years is the lowest leave balance
achieved following the completion of the SLA duty or the usual 60 days, whichever is
greater. (T-1).
5.4. Terms of Leave Carry-over.
5.4.1. A member may not carry forward a leave balance of more than 60 days into a new
fiscal year, except when entitled to SLA, as outlined below:
5.4.2. Members who serve on active duty while entitled to hostile fire/imminent danger pay
for a continuous period of at least 120 days and members serving in a “qualifying duty” as
designated by SAF/MR are authorized to retain such leave (not to exceed 120 days) until the
end of the third fiscal year following the fiscal year in which SLA was lost. (T-1).
5.4.3. Members assigned to a non-hostile fire pay and/or non-imminent danger pay area in
support of a contingency operation who are on Contingency, Exercise, and Deployment
orders (and in rare cases, DD Form 1610) are authorized to retain such leave up to 120 days
until the end of the second fiscal year following the fiscal year in which SLA was lost. (T-1).
5.4.4. If the SLA qualifying period crosses a fiscal year, then the entire leave balance (not to
exceed 120 days) will be carried forward and the leave accrued from the beginning of the
new fiscal year through the end of the SLA qualifying period will be added to establish the
maximum. Only that portion of a leave balance in excess of 60 days that could not have been
taken before the end of the fiscal year because the member was assigned to SLA qualifying
duty will be included in the carryover amount. Example: On August 31, 2007, a member
had a leave balance of 80 days. On September 15, 2007, he was assigned to duty qualifying
for SLA. Had the member not been assigned to SLA duty, he could have possibly taken 15
days leave from September 16 through September 30. If the member had taken leave during
this period, then there would still have been a loss of 7.5 days (82.5 days accrued through
September 30, less the 15 days potentially taken and the normal 60-day carryover restriction)
at the end of the fiscal year. Therefore, since only the portion that potentially could have
been taken is protected, the member may carry forward 75 days and will lose 7.5 days of
leave. (T-1).
5.5. SLA Approval Authority. For eligible members, the wing commander or wing vice
commander has the final authority which may be delegated no lower than the first O-6 in the
chain of command. At other organizations (i.e., Air Staff, MAJCOM, FOA, DRU) the senior
officer representative (O-6 and above) or equivalent at the directorate level approves SLA for
his/her organization. At joint organizations, the senior Air Force officer representative on staff
approves SLA for eligible members assigned to units, HAF, and supporting staffs. Once the
SLA package receives wing commander (or equivalent) approval, the package is processed to
AFPC for validation and processing.