Officer Career Development : URL Officers in Joint - Duty Assignments

19 ABSTRACT {Continue on reverse if necessary and identify by block number) This report is the seventh in a series that examines officer career development. Two unrestricted line (URL) officer communities were examined: aviation (AWOs) and surface (SWOs). The purpose of this research was to use the contrasting impressions that URL officers have among joint-duty shore, Navy shore, and Navy sea duty billets and commands to aid in the development of the Navy's new jointduty career policy. Using an existing data base, the assessments that 315 aviation and 153 surface officers had of their respective assignments were analyzed. Navy sea duty was evaluated as much more intrinsically rewarding by both groups of officers than either type of shore duty. Aviators observed that sea duty was significantly less extrinsically rewarding than any officers considered the other three types of billets. Both groups of officers noted that sea duty was an indication that the Navy wanted them to continue on active duty, possibly denoting that they were promotable. The results indicated that if sea duty opportunities are reduced as a result of joint-duty billet requirements, the AWOs and SWOs may not accept a new policy very willingly. Substituting joint-duty shore tours for Navy shore tours may produce the best results with less impact on surface warfare than on aviation officers.