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Foreign Service Tour Extension (FSTE)

Purpose

  1. Allows a soldier to extend their tour overseas for the length of their regular overseas tour minus one month. For soldiers serving a "with dependent (3 year)" tour it is 35 months. For soldiers serving an "all others (2 year)" tour it is 23 months. (AR 614-30, Table 6-2).
  2. Those preparing FSTE's should be careful to insure that the soldier will have 13 months remaining in their enlistment if that soldier is planning on PCSing back to the states to ETS. If the soldier wants to PCS back to the states they will have to Re-Enlist/Extend to meet the 13-month requirement.
  3. The request for FSTE should be submitted at least 12 months before their current DEROS. If the soldier does not have 12 months, they can request an exception to policy if they state the reason why (AR 614-30 table 6-2, Milper Msg 99-124 para 3A). "Exception to Policy" (or an abbreviation of) should be included on the DA 4187. Paragraph one (1) should also include the reason why the soldier should be granted the exception.
  4. An FSTE should not be confused with a Consecutive Overseas Tour (COT).
  5. Insure that you check the MilPer MSG to see if the soldier is allowed any bonuses at the moment (http://www-perscom.army.mil/tagd.fsd.MILPER.htm)
  6. In USAREUR: the status of FSTE's that have reached G1 can be checked at the following web address: http://status.hqusareur.army.mil:777/

Approving Authority
MACOM (AR 614-30, table 6-2 column E).

Supporting Documents

  1. PCS Orders with anything that has changed the soldiers DEROS

References
AR 614-30
MilPer MSG showing current MOS/Skill Level specific bonus

Work Flow
Who What
Soldier Reqeust FSTE
Unit Prepares DA 4187 for individual and commanders signature
Bn S1 Prepares BN Cdr Endorsement
BDE S1 Prepares BDE Cdr Endorsement
G1 Reviews for strength management
MACOM Approves / Dispapproves

Example
Example (fillable PDF)