Officer Promotion Opportunity Within the Navy Unrestricted Line 1973-1979.

The U.S. Navys unrestricted line URL officer promotion process serves as a reward system for individual officers and largely determines the officer manpower flows and grade structure within the URL. This thesis briefly examines the historical roots and defines the mechanics of the modern promotion system. It reports the results of a promotion attitude survey administered to 128 line officers at the Naval Postgraduate School. The survey addressed numerous issues regarding promotion equity and compares perceptions regarding selection opportunity between major URL communities aviation, surface, submarine and women officers. Most importantly, these perceptions are then compared to actual promotion success data gathered from Fiscal Years 1973-1979 for the grades of Lieutenant Commander to Captain. The paper identifies several areas of concern to officers, but concludes that the promotion system has functioned well in an overall sense. Author