The relationship of initial duty assignment and precommission major in college to the decision of junior Navy officers to stay in or leave the Navy was investigated. Surface warfare officers were examined with regard to their involvement in one of the following sources: Naval Academy, NROTC Scholarship Program, Officer Candidate School, NROTC College Program, and the Reserve Officer Candidate Program. Generally, both the officer's first duty assignment and education major were associated with retention, across as well as within separate commission sources. Retention was found to be lowest in staff and supporting shore activities and highest in the type of ships (i.e., small combatant ships) in which officers probably experienced the most arduous conditions of deployment, but also probably have the best opportunity to achieve essential shipboard qualifications. The education majors with the highest retention were fine arts, education, and social and behavioral sciences. Those with the lowest retention were architecture (other than naval), agriculture, forestry, humanities, and business administration. It was recommended that retention efforts should concentrate on the education majors with the higher retention rates, and that the development of a behavior model would be feasible and useful, subject to measuring defined pre- and postcommissioning factors, tracking the officers to all warfare and staff specialties, and comparing the retention behaviors of accessions from both wartime and peacetime periods. (Author/CT)