https://crsreports.congress.gov
Updated November 23, 2022
Defense Primer: Personnel Tempo (PERSTEMPO)
As a result of the nation’s extended involvement in
contingency operations around the globe over the past few
decades, some servicemembers have experienced
prolonged, recurrent, and stressful deployments. In
addition, preparation for deployments (e.g., training,
exercises, temporary duty assignments) can incur extended
working hours or frequent travel away from home station.
The pace of operations for individuals is commonly referred
to as personnel tempo (PERSTEMPO) and can affect
quality of life, work satisfaction, and overall morale for
members and their families.
Congress oversees the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s)
PERSTEMPO management, policies and programs. In
addition, congressional actions to authorize force size (i.e.,
end-strength) can affect the number of personnel available
for deployment. Appropriated funds for military pay and
benefits (including leave and morale programs) may
compensate troops for time spent away.
Background and Definitions
During the mid-1990s, though the nation was not engaged
in major conflict, a combination of force drawdowns and
increased deployments in support of peacetime missions
(e.g., peacekeeping and humanitarian operations) put stress
on servicemembers, particularly those in high-deploying
specialty units. A 1996 Government Accountability Office
(GAO) report found that DOD did not have consistent goals
or policies for managing personnel tempo (see Table 2).
Recognizing a need to more accurately measure the pace of
operations on military personnel, in 1999, Congress first
added a statutory definition for deployment, established
high-deployment thresholds (then defined as 182 days or
more out of the preceding 365 days), and required Secretary
of Defense (SECDEF) approval to exceed those thresholds
as part of the FY2000 National Defense Authorization Act
(NDAA; P.L. 106-65), This law also required the Under
Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to
develop standardized terminology and policies for operating
tempo (OPTEMPO) and personnel (PERSTEMPO), and to
track and report on these categories.
Shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks, the SECDEF
suspended statutory high-deployment thresholds under the
waiver authority in law. However, under department policy
(DOD Instruction 1336.5), the Services continued to track
deployment days. As operations in Afghanistan and Iraq
intensified, many raised concerns that individuals within
certain military occupational specialties were experiencing
both lengthy and frequent deployments. While the
PERSTEMPO measures captured deployment duration,
they did not adequately capture the down time, or dwell
time, members had between deployments. In 2007, DOD
established deploy-to-dwell planning objectives, and in the
FY2012 (NDAA; P.L. 112-81), Congress established a
statutory definition of dwell time (see Table 2 for a timeline
of selected events).
Current definitions take into account a broad range of
activities that keep servicemembers away from home
(Table 1). Activities not included as deployment events,
include, for example, military duties extending beyond
normal working hours but conducted at the member’s home
duty station, also known as permanent duty station.
Table 1. Statutory Definitions and Thresholds
