If an officer demonstrates superior performance and proves themselves capable of performing at the next higher pay grade, then they are given an increase in pay grade. The official term for this process is a
promotion. Commissioned naval officers originate from the
United States Naval Academy, the
United States Merchant Marine Academy, other Service Academies (United States Military Academy, United States Coast Guard Academy, or United States Air Force Academy),
Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC),
Officer Candidate School (OCS), the since-disestablished
Aviation Officer Candidate School (AOCS), and a host of other commissioning programs such as the "Seaman to Admiral-21" program and the
limited duty officer/
chief warrant officer (LDO/CWO) selection program. There are also a small number of
direct commissioned officers, primarily staff corps officers in the medical, dental, nurse, chaplain and judge advocate general career fields. Commissioned officers can generally be divided into line officers and staff corps: •
Line officers (or
officers of the line) derive their name from the 18th-century tactic of employing
warships in a line of battle to take advantage of
cannon on each side of the ship. These vessels were dubbed
ships of the line and those who commanded them were likewise called "line officers." Today, all United States Navy unrestricted line and restricted line officers denote their status with a star located above their rank insignia on the sleeves of their dress blue uniforms and shoulder boards of their white uniforms; metal rank insignia devices on both collar-points of khaki shirts/blouses; and cloth equivalents on both collar-points of blue NWUs. Officers of the staff corps replace the star (or the left collar-point on applicable shirts/blouses) with different insignias to indicate their field of specialty. Line officers can be categorized into unrestricted and restricted communities. •
Unrestricted line officers (URL) are the most visible and well-known of line officers, due to their role as the Navy's war-fighting
command element. They receive training in weapons systems, tactics, strategy,
command and control, and are considered unrestricted because they are authorized to command combatant ships, combat aviation squadrons/air groups/air wings, and
special operations units at sea, or combat aviation squadrons/air groups/air wings or special operations units deployed ashore. URL officers are
naval aviators (and Naval Aviator-
Astronauts),
Naval Flight Officers (and Naval Flight Officer-Astronauts),
Surface Warfare Officers,
Submarine Warfare Officers,
Special Warfare Officers (e.g., Sea-Air-Land, or
SEAL Officers), and
Special Operations/Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Officers. •
Restricted line officers (RL) concentrate on non-combat related fields, which include
marine engineering,
aeronautical engineering, ship
maintenance, aircraft
maintenance,
meteorology and
oceanography,
naval intelligence, information technology, manpower/human resources, public affairs, and a host of other career fields. They are not qualified to command combat units, but can command organizations in their respective specialized career fields. In certain shipboard environments, many unrestricted line officers fill what might be considered restricted line duties, such as the officers in a ship's or submarine's
engineering department. Because they maintain their general surface warfare or submarine warfare specialist duties instead of completely specializing in one career area, they maintain their unrestricted line command career path. •
Staff corps officers are specialists in fields that are themselves professional careers and not exclusive to the military, for example
health care,
law,
civil engineering and
religion. There are eight staff corps:
Medical Corps,
Dental Corps,
Nurse Corps,
Medical Service Corps,
Chaplain Corps,
Navy Supply Corps,
Judge Advocate General's Corps, and
Civil Engineer Corps. They primarily exist to augment the line communities and are able to be assigned to both line and staff commands. One exception to this is the case of Civil Engineer Corps officers, who serve as both the Public Works Officers and Resident Officers in Charge of Construction (ROICC) at naval shore installations, and as officers for Construction Battalion (
Seabee) units. This latter role requires them to serve in a command capacity for ground combatants when the Seabees are deployed to combat areas. Note 2: See also
Commodore (United States) — today an honorific title (but not a pay grade) for selected URL captains (O-6) in major command of multiple subordinate operational units, and formerly a rank (O-7). Note 3: The term "
line officer of the naval service" includes line officers of both the Navy and the Marine Corps. All U.S. Marine Corps officers are considered "of the line," including Marine Corps
limited duty officers, chief warrant officers, and warrant officers, regardless of grade or specialty.
"Tombstone promotions" The Act of Congress of March 4, 1925, provided for
Navy,
Marine Corps, and
Coast Guard officers to be promoted one grade upon retirement, if they had been specially commended for performance of duty in actual combat, known as "
tombstone promotions". Officers who received such tombstone promotions, also known as "tombstone officers", carried the loftier title but did not draw the additional retirement pay of their higher rank. The Act of Congress of February 23, 1942, enabled promotions to three- and four-star grades. Promotions were subsequently restricted to citations issued before January 1, 1947, and finally eliminated altogether effective November 1, 1959. Any officer who served honorably in a grade while on active duty receives precedence on the retirement list over any "tombstone officers" of the same grade, while "tombstone officers" of the same grade rank among each other according to their dates of rank in their highest active duty grade. ==Officer designator devices==