The Senate 16 years ago refused to confirm a Navy officer's promotion to captain because of what investigators described as his "peripheral role in the Iran/Contra matter."

The officer had influential supporters and friends. He remains on active duty today because the Navy keeps his name on its O-6 promotion list. This promotion list status has insulated the officer from force drawdowns, selective early retirement boards and even mandatory retirement set in law for O-5s after 28 years of service.

The officer is said to have a Lou Gehrig-like streak going — not for consecutive ball games played, but for consecutive years served in the same rank.

Now, the Senate Armed Services Committee has voted to change officer promotion laws to require that the services remove from promotion lists, after one year, the names of any officers whom the Senate has refused to confirm for higher rank. The provision is one of several to clarify officer promotion practices included in the Senate committee's version of the 2007 defense authorization bill. Floor debate on the bill is to begin this month.

The officer promotion changes, say committee staff, will iron out subtle variations across the services in the way they screen officers for promotion, delay promotions when adverse information surfaces, and remove — or refuse to remove — names from promotion lists, before and after Senate consideration. The committee changes, if adopted by the full Congress, would amend the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act for active duty officers and the Reserve Officer Personnel Management Act for Reserve and Guard officer promotions.

Defense officials who oversee officer promotion policy said they are studying the Senate ideas and "look forward to working with Congress on fine-tuning their proposals."

The change most likely to raise eyebrows would require automatic removal of officer names from a promotion list 365 days after the Senate declines to recommend promotion. That year's delay would provide "ample opportunity for review of adverse or potentially adverse information," according to the bill's committee report.

The committee seeks to end "limbo status" for officers who otherwise can stay on "a promotion list for protracted, indefinite periods."

Service leaders no longer should view as "acceptable" the shielding of a few select officers from force management tools after the Senate has considered the promotion but failed to act favorably on it.

One officer in limbo status is Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, who commanded the destroyer USS Cole when it was stuck by suicide bombers in October 2000 during a port visit to Yemen. The Navy investigation of the incident criticized Lippold but senior leaders said some of the criticism was unfair.

A board selected Lippold for promotion to captain in 2002. His nomination was blocked by the Senate committee. A second nomination failed to clear the White House before Congress adjourned in 2002. The Senate hasn't received a third nomination though Lippold remains on the captain's promotion list.

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