Page 1 GAO-17-623R Career Intermissions

441 G St. N.W.

Washington, DC 20548

May 31, 2017

The Honorable John McCain

Chairman

The Honorable Jack Reed

Ranking Member

Committee on Armed Services

United States Senate

The Honorable Mac Thornberry

Chairman

The Honorable Adam Smith

Ranking Member

Committee on Armed Services

House of Representatives

Military Personnel: Observations on the Department of Defense’s Career Intermission 

Pilot Program

Congress authorized the Career Intermission Pilot Program (CIPP) in 2009, with the intent of 

enhancing retention and providing greater flexibility in the career path of servicemembers.1

CIPP allows interested servicemembers to take career intermissions of up to 3 years in order to 

meet personal or professional needs--such as pursuing higher education, or caring for ailing 

parents or young children--and then return to active duty with no adverse career effects. 

Senate Report 114-255 accompanying a bill for the National Defense Authorization Act for 

Fiscal Year 2017 included a provision for us to report to the Senate and House Armed Services 

Committees on the Department of Defense’s (DOD) CIPP.2 This report transmits, in the form of 

the enclosed briefing, an update of some information from our October 2015 report on CIPP and 

provides CIPP costs and participation data from calendar years 2009 through 2016.3 This report

describes (1) the costs of CIPP since it began in 2009; (2) the number of servicemembers who 

participated in CIPP, their occupations, and their reasons for participating; (3) the number of 

servicemembers who did not return after their career intermissions, and their reasons for not 

returning; and (4) for those servicemembers who returned from their career intermissions, how 

they progressed in their careers. See the enclosure for the information we presented to 

committee staff on May 2, 2017.

 1

Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009, Pub. L. No. 110-417, § 533 (Oct. 14, 2008).

2

S. Rept. 114-255 (May 18, 2016).

3

GAO, Military Personnel: DOD Should Develop a Plan to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Its Career Intermission Pilot 

Program, GAO-16-35 (Washington, D.C. Oct. 27, 2015).
Page 2 GAO-17-623R Career Intermissions 

For our objectives, we analyzed for each military service the costs of CIPP, participation levels,

and other relevant participant data. We also reviewed DOD reports and our prior reports on 

CIPP and interviewed officials responsible for managing CIPP at the Office of the Under 

Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) and at each of the military services to discuss 

the program and determine the source of the data they provided, and to understand which cost 

elements represented estimated costs and which represented actual costs. To determine the 

reliability of the data related to the costs of CIPP and participation levels, we interviewed 

officials at each of the military services and reviewed documentation related to the data. We 

determined that the data collected were sufficiently reliable for our purposes.

We conducted this performance audit from February 2017 to May 2017 in accordance with 

generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and 

perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our 

findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained 

provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

In summary, for calendar years 2009 through 2016, we found:

• Analysis of data provided by the military services shows that the estimated costs of CIPP 

were approximately $4.8 million. Of these estimated costs, about $2.8 million was 

related to medical expenses, about $1.1 million was related to permanent change of 

station costs, and about $800,000 was related to salary payments.

• One hundred ninety-two servicemembers from across the military services began their 

career intermissions during this time period. Of the 192 servicemembers, 60 percent 

were enlisted, and 40 percent were officers; 44 percent were male, and 56 percent were 

female.

• Occupations of CIPP participants varied widely across the military services. 

• Participants in CIPP submitted reasons for their participation. We grouped these reasons 

into three categories – education, family, and other. Education was the most frequently 

submitted reason.

• Seventy-eight servicemembers have returned from career intermissions. A Marine Corps 

official who manages the Marine Corps CIPP told us that there was a single instance of 

a servicemember not returning to the military service to which he was assigned prior to

going on a career intermission. That servicemember was in the Marine Corps and 

attended seminary school while on career intermission. Because the Marine Corps does 

not have chaplains, the servicemember transferred to the Navy to continue military 

service as a chaplain. 

• The Navy had the largest number of servicemembers, 66, return from career 

intermissions. A Navy official identified 38 of the 66 as being eligible for promotion after 

returning to active duty, and told us that of the 38 servicemembers, 16 have been 

promoted. Navy officials stated that several factors could affect a promotion decision and 

it would not be possible to single out CIPP participation as a reason for a 

servicemember's either being or not being promoted.

• Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps officials said it is too early in their implementation of 

the program to assess career progression, as thus far none of the servicemembers who 

have returned from career intermissions have been eligible for promotion.
Page 3 GAO-17-623R Career Intermissions 

Agency Comments

We are not making recommendations in this report. DOD did not have comments on a draft of 

this report but provided technical comments which are incorporated where appropriate.

 - - - - -

We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate congressional committees; the Secretary 

of Defense; the Secretaries of the Air Force, Army, and Navy; and the Commandant of the 

Marine Corps. In addition, the report is available at no charge on the GAO website at 

http://www.gao.gov.

If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please contact me at (202) 512-3604 or 

farrellb@gao.gov. Contact points for our Office of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs 

may be found on the last page of this report. GAO staff who made key contributions to this 

report include Vijay Barnabas, Tim Carr, Felicia Lopez, Kimberly Seay, Norris “Traye” Smith, 

Mike Silver, and Cheryl Weissman.

Brenda S. Farrell

Director, Defense Capabilities and Management 
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