10 U.S.C. § 14302 - U.S. Code - Unannotated Title 10. Armed Forces § 14302. Promotion zones

(1)(A) In the case of officers in grades below colonel, for reserve officers of the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, or captain, for officers of the Navy Reserve, those who have neither (i) failed of selection for promotion to the next higher grade, nor (ii) been removed from a list of officers recommended for promotion to that grade.

(B) In the case of officers in the grade of colonel or brigadier general, for reserve officers of the Army and Marine Corps, or in the grade of captain or rear admiral (lower half), for reserve officers of the Navy, those who have neither (i) been recommended for promotion to the next higher grade when considered in the promotion zone, nor (ii) been removed from a list of officers recommended for promotion to that grade.

(A) have been selected from below the zone for promotion to the next higher grade or by a vacancy promotion board, but whose names were removed from the list of officers recommended for promotion to that next higher grade resulting from that selection;

(B) have not failed of selection for promotion to that next higher grade; and

(C) are senior to the officer designated by the Secretary of the military department concerned to be the junior officer in the promotion zone eligible for consideration for promotion to that next higher grade and the officer so designated.