According to the Alabama Department of Public Safety's Driver Manual in AL your driver license expires four years after it is issued and the expiration date is shown on the license. The license may be renewed at any time within 60 days prior to expiration at your Probate Judge or License Commissioner’s Office.

Military personnel, their dependents, students attending college, or other licensed Alabama drivers who are temporarily out of state due to their job requirement may be eligible to apply instead for the renewal of their license if they have obtained an Alabama driver license with their picture and signature in the last four years. The application for this request is available on the DPS website.

When you apply for a renewal of your license in this manner with the DPS you must submit the required fee of $23.00 by money order payable to the Driver License Division. The DPS says that a license will be issued, provided a photo and signature are on file and mailed to the licensee’s out-of-state address. The license must bear an Alabama address. This does not apply to holders of a commercial driver license.

Alabama law does provide a grace period of 60 days after expiration date of a driver’s license for the purpose of driver license renewal and the driver license shall be valid for this time period. An Alabama driver license may be renewed without examination within a 3-year period after expiration. A license issued under these circumstances will be valid for a four-year period from the last expiration date instead of four years from date of issue. Even though license renewal is possible up to three years after expiration, a person cannot legally operate a motor vehicle with an expired license.

From this information it appears you need to apply for the renewal of your AL driver's license since you are active military and are presently in Hawaii for this purpose and cannot renew your license in person. While Alabama law allows a grace period of 60 days after your license's expiration date for you to renew your license it does not mean that Hawaii will accept an expired out of state license as being valid.

Since there is a way in which to renew your license while out of state since you are an active military member it is doubtful that the state of Hawaii would allow you to keep driving on an expired license instead of applying for one through the mail with the AL DPS.

To find out if HI will accept your expired license for any period of time, or if you need to renew your license in the 60 days prior that Alabama allows so that your license is continuously valid without being expired, contact the Hawaii Department of Transportation. If you have time to renew your Alabama license before it expires then that would be advisable.

To get more details on how to renew your Alabama license while out of state contact the AL DPS directly.