The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that each officer designated as a joint qualified officer who graduates from a school within the National Defense University specified in subsection (c) shall be assigned to a joint duty assignment for that officer’s next duty assignment after such graduation (unless the officer receives a waiver of that requirement by the Secretary in an individual case).

The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that a high proportion (which shall be greater than 50 percent) of the officers graduating from a school within the National Defense University specified in subsection (c) who are not designated as a joint qualified officer shall receive assignments to a joint duty assignment (or, as authorized by the Secretary in an individual case, to a joint assignment other than a joint duty assignment) as their next duty assignment after such graduation or, to the extent authorized in paragraph (2), as their second duty assignment after such graduation.

(1) The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that a high proportion (which shall be greater than 50 percent) of the officers graduating from a school within the National Defense University specified in subsection (c) who are not designated as a joint qualified officer shall receive assignments to a joint duty assignment (or, as authorized by the Secretary in an individual case, to a joint assignment other than a joint duty assignment) as their next duty assignment after such graduation or, to the extent authorized in paragraph (2), as their second duty assignment after such graduation.

(2) The Secretary may, if the Secretary determines that it is necessary to do so for the efficient management of officer personnel, establish procedures to allow up to one-half of the officers subject to the assignment requirement in paragraph (1) to be assigned to such an assignment as their second (rather than first) assignment after such graduation from a school referred to in paragraph (1).

For purposes of this section, a school within the National Defense University specified in this subsection is one of the following:

(1) The National War College.

(2) The Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy.

(3) The Joint Forces Staff College.

Subsection (a) does not apply to an officer graduating from a school within the National Defense University specified in subsection (c) following pursuit of a program on an other-than-in-residence basis.

(1) Subsection (a) does not apply to an officer graduating from a school within the National Defense University specified in subsection (c) following pursuit of a program on an other-than-in-residence basis.

(2) Subsection (b) does not apply with respect to any group of officers graduating from a school within the National Defense University specified in subsection (c) following pursuit of a program on an other-than-in-residence basis.

(Added Pub. L. 99–433, title IV, § 401(a), Oct. 1, 1986, 100 Stat. 1027; amended Pub. L. 101–189, div. A, title XI, § 1123(c)(1), Nov. 29, 1989, 103 Stat. 1557; Pub. L. 102–190, div. A, title IX, § 912(a), Dec. 5, 1991, 105 Stat. 1452; Pub. L. 103–160, div. A, title IX, § 933(a), Nov. 30, 1993, 107 Stat. 1735; Pub. L. 107–107, div. A, title X, § 1048(a)(6), Dec. 28, 2001, 115 Stat. 1223; Pub. L. 107–314, div. A, title X, § 1062(a)(5), Dec. 2, 2002, 116 Stat. 2650; Pub. L. 108–375, div. A, title V, § 532(b)–(c)(2)(A), Oct. 28, 2004, 118 Stat. 1900; Pub. L. 109–364, div. A, title V, § 518, Oct. 17, 2006, 120 Stat. 2190; Pub. L. 110–417, [div. A], title V, § 522(b), Oct. 14, 2008, 122 Stat. 4445; Pub. L. 112–81, div. A, title V, § 503, div. B, title XXVIII, § 2861(c), Dec. 31, 2011, 125 Stat. 1388, 1701.)