High-Quality Senior Marine Corps Officers:
How Many Stay Beyond 20 Years of Service?
PEMD-85-1: Published: Nov 13, 1984. Publicly Released: Nov 13, 1984.
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GAO studied the quality of U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonels who retired at the end of 20 years of service and those who remained in the service for consideration for promotion by a colonel selection board to determine whether: (1) the best qualified lieutenant colonels left the service before being considered for promotion to colonel; and (2) quality and retention were differentiated by professional or academic education, military occupational specialty, years of military service, or how close the candidate was to colonel selection review.
GAO found that, of 1,005 officers who would have been evaluated by 1979-81 colonel selection boards, 417 left before they would have appeared before a board. Nearly 68 percent of the higher quality officers were retained by the Marine Corps beyond 20 years of service for consideration for promotion to colonel. Only 56 percent of the officers in the not-as-high-quality category were retained. Pilots and naval flight officers exhibited the lowest retention rate of higher quality officers while the infantry exhibited the highest retention rate. GAO found that retention did not seem to be affected by an officer's years of service, proximity to colonel selection review, graduate education, or career in either aviation or infantry occupations. However, retention did seem to be affected by government-sponsored graduate education and educational quality. Higher quality retention was greater for self-sponsored education, and selective retention was greater for government-sponsored programs. GAO found that the proportion of higher quality officers was greater among officers who attended command and staff colleges than among officers who did not. Finally, GAO found that officers with more education were more competitive for promotion to colonel. Training in military special education and advanced degree programs and attendance at command and staff college allowed even more competitiveness than the other education categories. However, officers with government-sponsored graduate education had less opportunity to attend command and staff college than officers without it.
Jan 19, 2021
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GPS Modernization:
DOD Continuing to Develop New Jam-Resistant Capability, But Widespread Use Remains Years AwayGAO-21-145: Published: Jan 19, 2021. Publicly Released: Jan 19, 2021.
Jan 14, 2021
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Columbia Class Submarine:
Delivery Hinges on Timely and Quality Materials from an Atrophied Supplier BaseGAO-21-257: Published: Jan 14, 2021. Publicly Released: Jan 14, 2021. -
Department of Defense:
Actions Needed to Improve Accounting of Intradepartmental TransactionsGAO-21-84: Published: Jan 14, 2021. Publicly Released: Jan 14, 2021.
Jan 12, 2021
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DOD Critical Technologies:
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Dec 10, 2020
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Climate Resilience:
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Dec 2, 2020
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Navy and Marine Corps:
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Nov 20, 2020
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GAO Audits Involving DOD:
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Nov 19, 2020
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Defense Acquisitions:
Joint Cyber Warfighting Architecture Would Benefit from Defined Goals and GovernanceGAO-21-68: Published: Nov 19, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 19, 2020. -
Defense Intelligence:
Comprehensive Plan Needed to Improve Stakeholder Engagement in the Development of New Military Intelligence SystemGAO-21-57: Published: Nov 19, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 19, 2020.
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