In the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009, which President Bush signed into law Oct. 14, is a provision that requires the services to offer 10 days’ paternity leave to male servicemembers on the birth of their children.

This was a compromise agreement reached with House negotiators after the Senate had voted to grant 21 days of paternity leave. Department of Defense officials expect to finalize their policy for implementing the new 10-day leave benefit by mid-November. The extra days of leave, which won’t count against 30 days’ annual leave, will be available retroactively for births on or after Oct. 14.

The law leaves it to the discretion of the services when paternity leave is granted to qualifying members. The timing can be affected by mission needs, unit deployment schedules and command priorities. [Military.com]

It is up to the command when the soldier gets paternity leave. I have never seen someone not be allowed to go on leave to see the birth of their child unless they were on deployment and arrangements could not be made to get them back. Chances are he will be able to see the baby born.

As far as being unfair "if you single with no kids," as Yournamehere so eloquently put it…I'm at a loss. How is it unfair to people with no kids? Assuming that many soldiers will eventually have children, it's perfectly fair. That's like saying it is unfair to undeployed soldiers that soldiers deployed to combat zones get 2 weeks of uncharged leave for R&R. ?? How does that make sense?! If you're not having a baby, why should you get 3 weeks of uncharged leave? You can have it when you have a baby!

I don't see an issue here, except keeping troop levels up in Iraq and Afghanistan. And if you read the bill in its entirety, you will learn that the 3 weeks will not be granted to soldiers deployed to combat zones until after their tour there is finished. So we won't be shorthanding our soldiers in combat.

I'm due with our first in December, and my husband is currently deployed with the 1st cavalry Division. He will not be there for the birth of his baby…he will take his mid-tour R&R as soon as possible afterward, but I will be giving birth alone. I'm prepared to do that, it's what being a military wife sometimes means – but I certainly think that for our sacrifices, we deserve to have 3 uninterrupted weeks of uncharged leave after he gets home to reintegrate and adjust to our new family of three. (The baby will be about 8 months old by that time.)

Also, please remember that the Family Medical Leave Act (12 weeks unpaid leave for births or to care for a sick, injured, or dying immediate family member without risking losing your job and benefits) that civilians can take advantage of doesn't apply to soldiers.

Being more family friendly in the military helps increase retention rates in an environment with so many deployments today. If servicemembers deploying feel like their families are not being taken care of by the military, it is harder to get them to reenlist.

Other allied nations militaries offer way better benefits for military families then the US military which should not be the case. I have worked with a variety of allied nations and have been amazed by the benefits they receive compared to the US military such as paternity leave which the US military may now just be getting.