Opinion ID: 186251
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Personnel System

Text: The Navy uses the same personnel system for all officers, including chaplains. That system seeks to manage officers’ 5 careers to provide the Navy with the best qualified personnel through three critical personnel decisions: (1) promotion; (2) continuation on active duty; and (3) selective early retirement. A naval officer must be recommended by a promotion selection board to advance in rank from lieutenant (junior grade) through rear admiral (lower half). See 10 U.S.C. § 611(a). Continuation on active duty decisions occur when the needs of the Navy require the selection of certain officers — otherwise subject to discharge or retirement for failing to be promoted to the next rank — to continue on active duty for an established period of time. See id. § 637(a)(1), (d). Conversely, selective early retirement decisions generally involve the selection of officers in the grade of captain who were passed over for promotion two or more times for involuntary, early retirement. Id. § 638(a)(1). Each of these personnel decisions involves a selection board comprised of naval officers who deliberate, make selections, and then submit their recommendations to the Secretary of the Navy. Promotion selection boards are convened under 10 U.S.C. § 611(a); continuation on active duty and selective early retirement boards are convened under 10 U.S.C. § 611(b). Selection boards must consist of five or more active-duty naval officers who ‘‘must be serving in a grade higher than the grade of the officers under consideration by the board, except that no member of a board may be serving in a grade below TTT lieutenant commander.’’ 10 U.S.C. § 612(a)(1). At least one member of the board must be from the category being considered; thus, if a selection board is considering chaplains, at least one board member must be a chaplain. See id. § 612(a)(2)(A). Promotion selection boards may only consider an eligible officer’s official military personnel file and the selection board ‘‘precept’’ issued to the board by the Secretary of the Navy. See 10 U.S.C. § 615(a), (b). A precept is the Secretary’s official guidance to the board, consisting of: (1) the maximum number of officers that the board may recommend for promotion, (2) ‘‘information or guidelines relating to the needs of the [Navy] for officers having particular skills,’’ and (3) applicable guidelines from the Secretary of Defense. Id. 6 § 615(b). A promotion selection board considers these items and recommends those officers ‘‘whom the board TTT considers best qualified for promotion.’’ Id. § 616(a). The promotion board reports its recommendations to the Secretary, 10 U.S.C. § 617(a), who takes action on the report in accordance with Section 618. If the Secretary ‘‘determines that the board acted contrary to law or regulation or to guidelines furnished the board under Section 615(b),’’ the Secretary must return the board’s recommendations with a written explanation for further proceedings. Id. § 618(a)(2). The Secretary otherwise reviews the board’s recommendations and adopts or modifies the list, and then forwards it to the President through the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense. See id. § 618(b), (c). The President ultimately appoints recommended officers for promotion to the next rank, subject to confirmation by the Senate for promotions above the rank of lieutenant (junior grade). See id. § 624. The other statutory selection boards — continuation on active duty and selective early retirement — are convened under Section 611(b) and have somewhat different procedures. The Secretary has final authority over these boards, and no Presidential or Senatorial action is involved. In addition, unlike the situation with promotion boards, there are no statutory guidelines that dictate what information other statutory selection boards may consider. By statute, each member of a selection board must take an oath to perform his duties ‘‘without prejudice or partiality and having in view both the special fitness of officers and the efficiency of [the Navy].’’ 10 U.S.C. § 613. As noted, members of promotion selection boards may not disclose the proceedings of the board to anyone not a member of the board, ‘‘[e]xcept as authorized or required by [Section 618].’’ Id. § 618(f). Navy regulations also require all selection board members to take an oath to ‘‘not divulge the proceedings of this board except as authorized or required by the Secretary of the Navy or higher authority.’’ Mem. in Support of Mot. for an Order Requiring Def. Secretary of the 7 Navy to Release Personnel Associated with Chaplain Promotion Boards from their Oath Not to Disclose Promotion Board Proceedings (Oct. 29, 2002) (Pls.’ Mot.), Ex. 1, Oaths; see also SECNAV Instruction 1420.1A, Promotion and Selective Early Retirement of Commissioned Officers on the Active Duty Lists of the Navy and Marine Corps ¶ 12(f) (Dep’t of the Navy Jan. 8, 1991) (‘‘Each member TTT shall swear or affirm that he or she will not disclose the proceedings or recommendations of the board except as authorized or required by SECNAV or higher authority.’’). Section 618(f) was enacted as part of the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act (DOPMA), Pub. L. No. 96-513, 94 Stat. 2835 (1980) (codified in scattered sections of 10 U.S.C.). Through DOPMA, Congress sought to update the existing statutory framework for military promotions established by the Officer Personnel Act of 1947, Pub. L. No. 80-381, 61 Stat. 795, by eliminating the services’ individual promotion systems in favor of ‘‘a single, permanent promotion system under a single, applicable statutory grade table and under laws that would be the same for each service.’’ S. Rep. No. 96-375, at 3 (1979). Section 618(f) codified in a uniform manner the established practice in the individual services of barring the disclosure of selection board proceedings. See, e.g., Brenner v. United States, 202 Ct. Cl. 678, 686 (Ct. Cl. 1973) (‘‘The proceedings of selection boards are secret.’’) (Navy); Sanders v. United States, 594 F.2d 804, 815 (Ct. Cl. 1979) (en banc) (‘‘Selection board proceedings are secret’’) (Air Force); Army Regulation 624-100, Promotion of Officers on Active Duty ¶ 2- 8 (Oct. 20, 1975).