Marine Officer
Promotions
Incentivizing and retaining top performers
by Capt Michael J. Lorino
The United States Marine Corps prides itself on having a professional and highly capa- ble officer corps. Promotion of
these officers through the ranks is largely
determined by the amount of time each
Marine spends at each grade, known as
time in grade. Current promotion
trends indicate that time in grade represents the single greatest factor in determining officer promotion eligibility, and
unlike the enlisted ranks, the performance of officers within the ranks of captain through lieutenant colonel has little
bearing on their promotion timeline. To
diminish this disparity the Marine
Corps should place additional emphasis
on performance criteria within field
grade promotion boards in order to incentivize its officers to excel and to prevent its most competent officers from
leaving active service.
Background
The role of time in grade as a primary factor in Marine officer promotions has been addressed in numerous
Marine Corps Gazette articles over the
years. Dating as far back as February
1975, 1stLt D.O. Bailey presented a
critique of the validity of officer promotions based primarily on experience.
He proposed the following for consideration:
In any promotion system, seniority
must play a large part, but should it
be the prime factor? Should a Captain
>Capt Lorino wrote this article
while attending Expeditionary Warfare School, academic year 2008–09.
When is pinning on the new rank a function of time in grade and not performance? (Photo by Cpl
Tom Sloan.)
