Holiday leave during BOLC

cjs

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How does the holiday leave work when one is at BOLC?

As Infantry BOLC is so long, my son will be at Infantry BOLC at Fort Benning for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I heard that they do get leave for the holidays. I would love to find out how this works. Would love to be able to fly him home for the holiday.
 
I can tell you my daughter just finished/graduated AMMED (medical services) BOLC in San Antonio on Friday and they were allowed to take the Friday off before Labor Day to make it a 4 day weekend if they asked and received advanced permission. That was it, no other days off.

They also had a limit on how far they were permitted to travel on their days off. I think the limit was 50 miles and the one exception they permitted was going to Austin. I know my DD got shot down when she asked for permission to go visit a friend at Ft Hood in Waco.
 
Check out block leave. Essentially the Army shuts down for about 10 days around Christmas. Not sure how it works exactly or what the dates are.
 
You will hear the term "Christmas Exodus" the time when the base sees a lot shut down and soldiers on leave.

Can't say how it works for different BOLC's since I'm sure each runs their program a little different.

My older son went Aviation, since his training was a PCS move things worked a little different. A-BOLC was at the beginning, they basically trained during the day and then went home at night, either on base or off base housing. They had most weekends off and the time was their's, though thy did have distance restrictions and needed to obtain a pass to travel overnight within that distance, I don't think they were ever denied the pass. Once A-BOLC was over they continued on with training and flight school, he was allowed to take a week over Christmas to come home.

Aviation BOLC and flight school is a whole different process then other BOLC's, I know Infantry is a long period as well considering most head straight to Ranger School when they are done.

Hopefully Norwich Dad will see this post, his son went through IBOLC and he may be able to give you much more information, you might want to send him a PM and ask how it worked for his son.
 
How does the holiday leave work when one is at BOLC?

As Infantry BOLC is so long, my son will be at Infantry BOLC at Fort Benning for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I heard that they do get leave for the holidays. I would love to find out how this works. Would love to be able to fly him home for the holiday.


My son was in a slightly different schedule doing IBOLC over the summer and Ranger School in the Fall. He spent Thanksgiving in the Florida Phase of Ranger School. He came home for Christmas. He is pretty sure your son would have gotten the schedule for the entirity of IBOLC in his first few days there. If he did not tell him to ask what days he has off for both holidays. Remind him it gets more expensive to book the longer you wait. He should have a long one for Christmas.

If he has not started yet, see if there is a number on his orders he can call.

Best Wishes
 
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My son was in a slightly different schedule doing IBOLC over the summer and Ranger School in the Fall. He spent Thanksgiving in the Florida Phase of Ranger School. He came home for Christmas. He is pretty sure your son would have gotten the schedule for the entirity of IBOLC in his first few days there. If he did not tell him to ask what days he has off for both holidays. Remind him it gets more expensive to book the longer you wait. He should have a long one for Christmas.

If he has not started yet, see if there is a number on his orders he can call.

Best Wishes

Thank you for the information. He hasn't started yet so we have no idea about his schedule.
 
You will hear the term "Christmas Exodus" the time when the base sees a lot shut down and soldiers on leave.

Can't say how it works for different BOLC's since I'm sure each runs their program a little different.

My older son went Aviation, since his training was a PCS move things worked a little different. A-BOLC was at the beginning, they basically trained during the day and then went home at night, either on base or off base housing. They had most weekends off and the time was their's, though thy did have distance restrictions and needed to obtain a pass to travel overnight within that distance, I don't think they were ever denied the pass. Once A-BOLC was over they continued on with training and flight school, he was allowed to take a week over Christmas to come home.

Aviation BOLC and flight school is a whole different process then other BOLC's, I know Infantry is a long period as well considering most head straight to Ranger School when they are done.

Hopefully Norwich Dad will see this post, his son went through IBOLC and he may be able to give you much more information, you might want to send him a PM and ask how it worked for his son.

Thanks for the info! It's also considered a PCS move for the IBOLC.

I was just hoping that he got to come home for Christmas.
 
found this link

How does the holiday leave work when one is at BOLC?

As Infantry BOLC is so long, my son will be at Infantry BOLC at Fort Benning for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I heard that they do get leave for the holidays. I would love to find out how this works. Would love to be able to fly him home for the holiday.[/QUOTE]

http://www.benning.army.mil/infantry/199th/ibolc/


It lists the length of each IBOLC class and you can also find the weekly schedule; you can see that those that span the holidays are longer than others. How far you can travel that's another question.
 
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How does the holiday leave work when one is at BOLC?

As Infantry BOLC is so long, my son will be at Infantry BOLC at Fort Benning for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I heard that they do get leave for the holidays. I would love to find out how this works. Would love to be able to fly him home for the holiday.

This won't fully answer your question, but here goes.

The IBOLC classes which start on Oct 6, Nov 3 and Dec 1 run for roughly four months plus two weeks. The other IBOLC classes last for about four months.

I hope he has a long Thanksgiving weekend and you get to see him. In the last couple of years I've noticed that the airlines treat Thanksgiving holiday like it's a winning lottery ticket.
 
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