Military Tour Length And Tour Curtailment Policies And Practices
Abstract
Defense will spend about $1.24 billion in fiscal year 1985 to move military personnel to and from overseas locations. Lengthening tours and limiting curtailments would lower this cost. Yet, when Defense changes tour lengths, cost considerations play a secondary role. In 1980, Defense shortened tours for most first-term personnel in long-tour areas from 30 to 18 months. This was to reduce disciplinary problems and may have been appropriate for the time. Disciplinary problems have declined, but it is not clear whether this resulted from shorter tours or from higher pay and better quality of recruits. In light of the savings that would accrue from lengthening tours, GAO believes that Defense should reevaluate its earlier decision. GAOs limited test of curtailments indicated that the justifications for allowing people to move before their tours were completed seemed reasonable. However, neither GAO nor Defense can evaluate the services overall management of curtailments at this time because their, data bases are inadequate.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 19, 1985
- Accession Number
- AD1103032
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office