ex-Naval Officer: I left because I knew the most incapable officers around me would be promoted at the same time I would be and that after a few years on shore

ex-Naval Officer: I left because I knew the most incapable officers around me would be promoted at the same time I would be and that after a few years on shore duty I would be back on a submarine working with them. Except now they would be in a position that their level of ability would affect more people. After a few more years, most of those people would be promoted to the next level with me. It was just my experience, I don't know about other ships but some of the officers at the level higher than me were not worth the oxygen they displaced. The Captain of the ship was unable or unwilling to deal with them. It eventually degraded into the Captain making jokes, I think he thought that would motivate them to work harder. The worst thing for me was that there was no mechanism to filter out the underachievers. The evaluation system is useless, everyone gets the same grade.