The ETS BAL field on your LES shows the total number of leave days you are projected to have on the day your current enlistment ends. It sits in the leave section of the statement as Field 29, and it combines the leave you have right now with every day you will still earn between this pay period and your separation date. It is a projection, not your current balance, and not your ETS date.
ETS BAL Is Not the Same as ETS
Two fields on the LES reference your Expiration Term of Service, and they answer different questions. Field 6, labeled “ETS,” is the date your current enlistment contract expires, formatted YYMMDD.1Defense Finance and Accounting Service. How to Read an Active Duty Army Leave and Earning Statement The Navy and Marine Corps often call the same date EAOS (Expiration of Active Obligated Service); the Army uses ETS. Either way, it is the last day of your current obligation.2Military Compensation and Financial Readiness. Leave Benefits During Transition
Field 29, “ETS BAL,” is a leave figure. It tells you how many days of leave you are on track to have accumulated by the time you hit that ETS date.1Defense Finance and Accounting Service. How to Read an Active Duty Army Leave and Earning Statement Reading Field 29 as a date, or Field 6 as a leave count, is one of the more common LES misreads. Both fields update in myPay each pay period.
How the ETS BAL Is Calculated
The formula is simple. Active-duty service members earn 2.5 days of leave for each month served, which comes out to 30 days a year.3Military OneSource. Military Leave: What It Is and How It Works The ETS BAL takes your current leave balance and adds the leave you will earn between now and your ETS date.4U.S. Army 7th Army Training Command. Explanation of Leave and Earnings Statement
A worked example: current balance 15 days, eight months remaining until ETS. Eight months at 2.5 days per month is another 20 days of accrual, so the projected ETS BAL is 35.
Because it is a projection, the number moves every pay period. Use a week of leave and your ETS BAL drops by seven. Extend your enlistment and it recalculates against the new date. If you plan to make separation decisions around this figure, check it monthly rather than trusting a number you looked at six months ago.
USE/LOSE Sits Next to ETS BAL for a Reason
Near Field 29 on the LES is another projected balance labeled USE/LOSE. That one shows how many days you will forfeit if you do not use them by the end of the current fiscal year on September 30.5Defense Finance and Accounting Service. How to Read a Reserve and National Guard Leave and Earning Statement The standard carryover cap is 60 days, plus up to 30 days of special leave accrual where authorized. Anything over the cap on October 1 disappears.6Air Force Personnel Center. DAF Announces Updates to Military Leave Program
If your ETS lands inside the current fiscal year, USE/LOSE matters less because you will separate before the carryover deadline hits. If your ETS is more than a year out and USE/LOSE is showing a real number, that leave will not appear in your ETS BAL either. The projection assumes it is already gone.
Why the Number Matters at Separation
The ETS BAL is the starting point for two financial choices you make near the end of a contract: taking terminal leave, selling leave back, or splitting the difference.
Terminal Leave
Terminal leave is accumulated leave taken immediately before your separation date. You remain on the books as active duty, drawing full base pay and all allowances, without reporting to your duty station. Command approval is required, so the conversation needs to start early.3Military OneSource. Military Leave: What It Is and How It Works For most people this is the better financial option because BAH, BAS, and other allowances keep flowing on top of base pay, and military healthcare stays in effect.
Selling Leave Back
You can sell unused leave to the government at 1/30th of base pay per day. Allowances are not part of the calculation.3Military OneSource. Military Leave: What It Is and How It Works There is a career lifetime cap of 60 days that can be sold back, and it does not reset with each reenlistment. If you sold 20 days after an earlier contract, you have 40 left to sell.
The payment is treated as supplemental wages for tax purposes. Federal withholding on supplemental wages is a flat 22 percent, with state tax applying where relevant.7Internal Revenue Service. Publication 15 (2026), (Circular E), Employer’s Tax Guide That withholding is the main reason terminal leave usually beats sell-back on the math: a terminal-leave day pays base pay plus allowances, while a sold day pays only 1/30th of base pay and then gets taxed.
A higher projected balance gives you more room to combine the two. Sixty projected days might mean two months of terminal leave with none sold, or one month of terminal leave and thirty days cashed out. Ten projected days leaves far fewer moves. Either way, Field 29 is the number the decision runs on.
If Your ETS BAL Looks Wrong
If the projected balance does not match what you expect, start with your unit’s S-1 (personnel office) or finance office.8U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Personnel Records – Frequently Asked Questions Bring your enlistment contract, any extension agreements, and reenlistment paperwork. The S-1 handles personnel record corrections through the appropriate HR system.
A wrong ETS date will throw off the ETS BAL by itself, because future accrual is calculated against that date. If the ETS date is right but the leave figure still looks off, work backward through your leave records. Missing charges, double-posted days, and mis-coded leave add up over a career. Errors are easier to fix a year out than during the month your separation orders are being drafted.