§1181 Authority to establish procedures to consider the separation of officers for substandard performance of duty and for certain other reasons

Summary

Within limits set by the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of each military department must create rules to allow an officer’s service record to be reviewed at any time. This applies to any commissioned officer (not a commissioned warrant officer or a retired officer) of the Regular Army, Regular Navy, Regular Air Force, Regular Marine Corps, or Regular Space Force. The review checks if an officer’s job performance has fallen below required standards and whether the officer must be asked to explain why they should remain on active duty. Also under those limits, each military department must have rules to review an officer’s record at any time for misconduct, moral or professional failings, or when keeping the officer might not clearly serve national security. If any of those are true, the officer can be required to show cause for staying on active duty.