Can I Take 120 Days of Terminal Leave in the Military?

Taking 120 days of terminal leave in the military on accrued leave alone is not possible for most service members under current rules. The standard carryover cap is 60 days, and Special Leave Accrual raises the ceiling only to 90 days for anyone who earned it after January 1, 2023. A narrow group grandfathered under the old 120-day SLA cap can still hold higher balances, but any leave above 90 days forfeits on October 1, 2026. The practical way to build a transition window that reaches or passes 120 days is to combine terminal leave with permissive temporary duty (PTDY) and DoD SkillBridge.

What Your Leave Balance Can Actually Hold

Active-duty members earn 2.5 days of leave per month, or 30 days a year.¹ At the end of the fiscal year on September 30, the most you can carry into the next year is 60 days. Anything above that forfeits.²

That 60-day ceiling is the first reason 120 days of pure terminal leave is out of reach for most people. Even a member who never took a single day off would lose everything past 60 at the fiscal-year boundary. Special Leave Accrual is the only routine exception.

Special Leave Accrual

SLA lets you retain up to 30 additional days above the 60-day cap, for a combined maximum of 90. You generally qualify by serving at least 120 continuous days on active duty in a hostile fire or imminent danger pay area, or by being assigned to a deployable ship or similar duty where operations prevented you from taking leave.¹ Once the qualifying period ends, you have two fiscal years to use the excess before it expires.³

The Old 120-Day Cap

Before January 1, 2023, the SLA cap sat at 120 days. The FY23 National Defense Authorization Act permanently lowered it to 90. Members who held balances above 90 on December 31, 2022, were grandfathered under the old cap, but any leave above 90 days that remains on October 1, 2026, is forfeited.⁴ If you are one of the few still carrying between 91 and 120 days, you have a hard deadline to either use it as terminal leave or lose it.

Enlisted members facing that forfeiture can make a one-time election to sell back up to 30 days of the excess above 90. That payment counts against the 60-day career sell-back limit.⁵

How Long Terminal Leave Can Actually Run

Terminal leave is not limited to whatever balance shows on the day you file the request. Your commander can authorize terminal leave that includes the leave you will keep earning through your separation date, because you continue to accrue 2.5 days per month while on it.⁶

The math for a few starting points:

Standard balance of 60 days: roughly two months of terminal leave earns about 5 more days, so the ceiling is around 65 days.
SLA balance of 90 days: about three months earns roughly 7.5 more days, pushing the ceiling near 97 days.
Grandfathered pre-2023 balance of 120 days: about four months earns roughly 10 more days, which could approach 130 on paper, provided you separate before the October 2026 forfeiture deadline.

Terminal leave has to end on your official separation or retirement date, and it cannot extend past it.⁷ So the only way most members reach four months of paid transition time is by stacking other programs on top.

Stacking PTDY and SkillBridge to Reach 120 Days

If the real goal is maximizing the gap between your last day at your unit and your separation date, terminal leave is one of three pieces.

Permissive Temporary Duty

PTDY provides non-chargeable days for job hunting and house hunting. It does not touch your leave balance. The authorized amounts:

Involuntary separation, stationed in CONUS: up to 10 days
Retirement, stationed in CONUS: up to 20 days
Involuntary separation, stationed OCONUS: up to 20 days
Retirement, stationed OCONUS: up to 30 days

PTDY typically runs right after separation processing and before terminal leave begins.⁸

DoD SkillBridge

SkillBridge places you with a civilian employer for training during your last 180 days of active duty. You continue to draw your full military pay, and the assignment is permissive duty rather than chargeable leave.⁹ You need at least 180 days of active service and must be within 180 days of your expected separation date.¹⁰

Sequenced together, SkillBridge, then PTDY, then terminal leave can easily put a retiring member off their unit for well over 120 days, even though terminal leave by itself would not get there. This stack is where the “120 days” figure most people ask about actually comes from.

Terminal Leave vs. Selling It Back

When you separate, unused leave has three destinations: use it in service, take it as terminal leave, or sell it back.⁷ You can also mix the last two, taking part as terminal leave and selling the rest.

Sold-back leave pays a lump sum based on basic pay only. No BAH, no BAS, no special pays. The payment is withheld at the 22% supplemental-wage federal rate plus any state tax. You are also capped at 60 days sold back over your entire career.²

Terminal leave keeps your full paycheck flowing, including allowances, TRICARE coverage, and continued leave accrual. The difference between selling a day and taking it as terminal leave typically runs 40 to 60 percent of the day’s total value, depending on rank and duty station. Taking terminal leave is almost always the better financial move, and it gets stronger when you line up a civilian job to start at the same time. Federal law expressly allows a service member on terminal leave to accept a civilian federal position and draw both salaries simultaneously.¹¹ Private-sector work is generally fine for enlisted members subject to any outside-employment approval their branch requires; officers cannot represent a private employer before a federal agency or court while still on active duty.

Requesting Terminal Leave

Start the paperwork several months before your planned separation or retirement date. You submit a leave request through your chain of command, and your admin office verifies your accrued balance plus what you will earn through separation. Your commander has the authority to approve terminal leave exceeding 60 days when your balance supports it.⁶

Denials generally cite military necessity or a separation directive requiring the earliest possible departure.¹² If your request is denied, you do not lose the leave itself; you can still sell back up to 60 days of it, and you can appeal through the next level of your chain of command. Most commanders approve terminal leave when operations allow, but early filing gives you time to work through any problem before your separation date locks in.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 701 – Entitlement and Accumulation
2
Military OneSource. Military Leave: What It Is and How It Works
3
The Official Army Benefits Website. Special Leave Accrual (SLA)
4
Air Force’s Personnel Center. DAF Announces Updates to Military Leave Program
5
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Special Leave Accrual (SLA) and Use/Lose Leave Balances
6
MyNavyHR. MILPERSMAN 1050-120 – Separation Leave
7
Military Compensation and Financial Readiness. Leave Benefits During Transition
8
MyNavyHR. MILPERSMAN 1320-220 – Permissive Temporary Duty (PTDY) Authorization for Job/House Hunting
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 1143 – Employment Assistance
10
SkillBridge. FAQs – DOD SkillBridge
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5534a – Dual Employment and Pay During Terminal Leave From Uniformed Services
12
Department of the Air Force. Military Leave Program (DAFI36-3003)