>When I was in service in the early 70's I knew somebody who went to a chess tournament as an Army representative. I looked up the regulation and found that Administrative Leave (time off from duty which does not count against your vacation time) could be granted to someone representing the Army in a competitive sporting event. On a lark, I wrote up a request for Admin Leave to go play in a Bridge tournament (a nationally rated tournament - but I would play in several of the subsidiary events) and gave examples of how bridge matched the requirements in that regulation. Maybe it was the novelty, or maybe it was the sheer chutzpah of the request, but a very surprised SP/4 Pupko was given 7 days leave and had a wonderful extra vacation.

Rich;

One fun thing I did while in the Air Force was to participate (and win) the Air Force talent contest, playing my flamenco guitar. We had to fly down to Hamilton and I got to stay at home in San Francisco, for two weeks. I only had to appear for the dress rehearsal and the final event, both on the same day. The rest of the time was MINE! Great memories and it did not count against personal leave.

Tom