NAVY RETENTION: A CROSS-COMPARISON OF ALL NAVY MEDICINE AND SURFACE WARFARE OFFICER COMMUNITIES

Includes supplementary materialThis thesis examines retention in the Navy Medicine and Surface Warfare communities using an administrative dataset from Defense Manpower Data Center and the Milestone Survey from the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Manpower, Personnel, Training, and Education) (OPNAV N1). Through a combination of descriptive and multivariate logistic models, we find that being a female, having dependents, and being Hispanic are most correlated with separation outcomes in the administrative data. Our survey results indicate that the top reasons for leaving are impact on family, civilian job opportunities, and work-life balance. The top reasons for staying are medical and dental benefits, monetary compensation and retirement, and current job satisfaction. We find that while there is a considerable variation in the intent to leave percentage across communities in the survey, the percent of service members who actually left the Navy voluntarily in the administrative data are similar across the communities. We recommend that the Navy focus on improving the quality of life for members and their families. An additional consideration includes shifting the timeline for assignment of Navy Medicine junior officers to their first sea duty tours and deployments.Lieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant Commander, United States NavyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited