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15 officers, enlisted selected for sabbaticals

Navy officials have selected 15 service members who will be allowed to leave the service for up to three years to handle personal matters and return without penalty and resume their careers.

Six enlisted sailors and nine officers were picked by the first sabbatical board, which met in late May. That’s far short of the 20 enlisted and 20 officers the service was allowed by Congress.

“No, we’re not disappointed in any way,” said Capt Ken Barrett, who heads the Navy Diversity Programs Office, which is overseeing the program. “We got 19 packages in all, and, given the circumstances, we think it’s a great start to a very unique program.”

The uncertain economy, he said, coupled with the fact that sailors only receive a small monetary stipend while away from the Navy, could have caused fewer to apply, officials said.

In addition, he said, sailors had less than a month to submit packages to the board once the program got final approval. Because all applicants are required to give detailed explanations of what they plan to do with their time away, officials said the short timeline and the fact that this is a new program also were factors.

“We got 76 inquires about the program that led to the 19 packages,” he said. “We know the interest is there, but we understand ... many take a ‘wait and see how it goes’ attitude before applying themselves.”

Officially, the Navy is calling these sabbaticals a “career intermission” program. Those selected are allowed to leave active duty for one to three years with full medical benefits, base commissary, exchange and recreation privileges, and a small stipend equal to 1/15th of their base pay. The service will also move the participants to where they plan to live during their sabbatical, if necessary.

In return, they must serve an additional two months for every month they are gone; that time will be tacked on to whatever obligation they already have. All sabbaticals must be finished by 2015, when the program’s authority expires.

But not everyone is going to head out the door right away, Barrett said.

“Everyone gave us a timeframe in their package that they’d like to go out on,” he said. “Most are going on their [rotation date]. Some are leaving this summer, and it goes from there all the way to next February, when one of our selectees will start their intermission — that was one of the ideas of the program, to offer that kind of flexibility.”

The pilot program was approved in the 2008 budget. Congress gave all the services the chance try out the idea until 2015, but restricted its use to 20 officers and 20 enlisted personnel per calendar year. Right now, the Navy is the only service using the program, Barrett said, noting the Air Force is closely watching the Navy’s results. The Coast Guard adopted a similar program in the 1990s, he said.

Barrett and his staff have until the end of December to select an additional 11 officers and 14 enlisted sailors for this calendar year’s sabbatical class.

“A lot of thought has gone into deciding how we’ll proceed, and we hope to have that decided by the end of July,” Barrett said.

Among options on the table, he said, were to hold an additional board this fall or to leave applications open, evaluate each package as it arrives, and keep selecting until the billets run out.

“The idea of taking a sabbatical, especially to take care of a loved one, could come up rather quickly,” he said. “This would leave this as a viable option for some to apply and get an answer rather quickly instead of having to wait for a set board.”

Time off

These officers and enlisted sailors have been selected for a program allowing them to take sabbaticals for up to three years.

Lt. Raoul Archambault

Lt. Cmdr. Shelby Baecker

Lt. Evan Hodell

Lt. Danielle Leiby

Lt. Cmdr. Adejose McKoy

Lt. Michelle Mecklenburg

Lt. Christopher Morgan

Lt. Cmdr. Jacob Padilla

Lt. Robert Turner

AD2 Robert Lockwood

LN1 Shenika Mayes

AO3 Joseph Miller

BM1 Megan Miller

CTT1 Jacqueline Mitchell-Legette

MA1 Ryan Williams