42 U.S.C. § 211 — Promotion of commissioned officers

(a) Promotions of Regular Corps officers up through the director grade are either permanent (based on length of service, or to fill a vacancy) or temporary. The President makes both permanent and temporary promotions. Each permanent promotion moves an officer up exactly one grade, and only happens after an exam required by the President's regulations. (b) The President can make a rule that, in a specific professional category, permanent promotions to the senior grade — or to both the full grade and senior grade — only happen when there's an actual vacancy. A grade covered by such a rule is called a "restricted grade." (c) Promotion exams can be either competitive or non-competitive, as the Surgeon General decides — except exams for the assistant or senior assistant grade, which must always be non-competitive. The Surgeon General picks which officers get examined, in order of seniority within the category. For a competitive exam, the Surgeon General decides beforehand how many officers who pass will actually be recommended for promotion. If the exam is for a length-of-service promotion, or for filling a vacancy other than in the director grade or a restricted grade, that number can't be less than 80 percent of everyone examined. (d) Officers found qualified under (c) get permanent, length-of-service promotions this way: (1) Officers at the warrant officer grades (W-1 through W-4) and the junior assistant grade get promoted at times set in the President's regulations. (2) Officers with permanent rank in the assistant, senior assistant, or full grade get promoted after finishing three, ten, and seventeen years, respectively, of service above the junior assistant grade — unless rule (b) applies. These promotions take effect, for pay and seniority, the day after that service is completed. If an officer hasn't finished the required years yet, but a more junior officer in the same grade and category gets promoted under this rule, the senior officer's promotion happens at the same time and takes effect the same day. (e) Officers in a professional category, found qualified under (c), can get permanent promotions to fill any or all vacancies in the senior assistant, full, senior, or director grade. But an officer can't be promoted to a restricted grade or the director grade unless they've had at least one year of service, permanent or temporary, in the next lower grade. (f) If an officer who's finished the required years of service under (d)(2) doesn't get that promotion, they get re-examined once more, unless they've already been examined twice for that grade. If they're then promoted, other than under (e), the promotion's effective date is pushed back one year from what it otherwise would have been. Once that promotion actually takes effect, the officer's counted service resets, as if they had only just then reached the years of service they'd previously failed to get credit for. (g) If, for reasons other than physical disability, an officer isn't found qualified for promotion under (c): an officer at the W-1 or junior assistant grade is separated from the Service. An officer at the W-2, W-3, assistant, senior assistant, or full grade who's been examined twice, not counting restricted-grade exams, and still isn't promoted, is treated differently by grade: (1) at W-2 or assistant grade, they're separated and paid six months' basic pay and allowances; (2) at W-3 or senior assistant grade, they're separated and paid one year's basic pay and allowances; (3) at full grade, they're treated as no longer in line for promotion, and eventually retired with retired pay, calculated one of two ways depending on when they first joined a uniformed service: (A) before September 8, 1980, at 2.5 percent of their retired pay base for each year, up to 30, of active commissioned service; or (B) on or after that date, using the retired pay base and retired pay multiplier formulas set in sections 1407 and 1409 of title 10. (h) An officer eligible for a promotion exam who refuses to take it can be separated from the Service, following the President's regulations. (i) After an officer's first three years of service, if they were originally appointed straight to the senior assistant grade or higher, their record gets reviewed under the President's regulations. If found not qualified for continued service, they're separated and paid six months' pay and allowances. (j) Seniority within a grade is based on how long an officer has actively served since their original appointment or permanent promotion to that grade. (1) If two or more officers are promoted to the same grade on the same day, they keep the same relative seniority they had in their previous grade. In all other cases of same-day original appointments or permanent promotions to the same grade, seniority follows the President's regulations. (2) For an officer originally appointed straight into the Regular Corps at the assistant grade or above, their seniority also counts certain active service they did in that grade or a higher grade in the Ready Reserve Corps — but for appointments at senior assistant or above, only the larger of two amounts: (A) their active Ready Reserve Corps service in that grade or higher after the first day they had the training and experience needed for the Regular Corps appointment, or (B) their total active Ready Reserve Corps service above junior assistant, minus three years for a senior assistant appointment, ten years for a full grade appointment, or seventeen years for a senior grade appointment. (k) Any Regular Corps officer can be recommended to the President for a temporary promotion to fill a vacancy in a higher grade in their category, up to and including the director grade. During a war or a national emergency the President has declared, an officer can be recommended for a temporary promotion to a higher grade even without a vacancy. The President's regulations govern how officers are selected for temporary promotion. A temporary promotion doesn't require meeting the usual years-of-service rule, doesn't require an exam, and doesn't cancel the officer's permanent appointment — but it does come with the pay and allowances of the higher grade. The President can end a temporary promotion at any time. (l) When the combined number of Regular Corps officers on active duty and Ready Reserve Corps officers who've served 30 days or more on active duty exceeds the Regular Corps' authorized strength, the Secretary must determine how many officers each grade and category actually needs, based on the total number serving and the Service's workload. The Surgeon General then assigns each Ready Reserve Corps officer on active duty to a professional category. If the Secretary finds that the number set under section 210b(c) for a grade and category — or the actual number serving there, including Ready Reserve Corps officers, if that's higher — isn't enough to meet the Service's needs, officers from either Corps can be recommended for temporary promotion into that grade and category. The President can end any such promotion at any time. (m) An officer, whether Regular Corps or an active-duty Ready Reserve Corps officer, who is promoted to a higher grade is treated as having accepted the promotion unless they expressly decline it. They don't have to retake their oath of office, or sign a new affidavit under section 3332 of title 5.