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Dump photos for good

For years, the Navy required every officer to maintain a current photo in his service record jacket. It was no big deal.

Then, in 2005, the photo requirement was dropped. Two years later, we’re back where we started — with one major exception: Most officers aren’t complying.

Indeed, three of every four officers in the Navy will fail to meet the deadline to produce a current picture for his official record. For a group of people who usually follow law to the letter, that’s astounding.

But why? Surely, in this age of digital cameras, setting up the photo isn’t very difficult. And it’s not as if the Navy has kept this policy change a secret.

There are probably three factors at play here. First, some officers are lazy. There’s no penalty for not having one’s file up to date, so these guys just don’t care. Second, some officers are worried. Too many doughnuts and not enough exercise make for less-than-flattering full-body photography. Third — and this one is the key — there is something unseemly and perhaps unfair about requiring a photo. The inherent libertarian in every naval officer can’t help but rebel against that.

Photos are a poor judge of physical conditioning and a false judge of military bearing. Anyone can suck in the gut and puff out the chest for one portrait. Worse, photos undermine the Navy’s carefully crafted merit-based promotion system, introducing a subjective element — what a person looks like — into an otherwise objective review of an officer’s career.

Whether purposely or inadvertently, photos can color one’s opinion of the given individual. The color of an officer’s skin, the curve of her nose, the fullness of his lips, the shape of her legs ... all of these fuel involuntary emotional responses that can color the way we think about a person. Advertising companies know this, which is why they’re so careful about selecting the right models to represent their brands. People who look a certain way make us respond a certain way.

The Navy promotion system is not subject to such whims, nor should it be. Ditch the photo requirement once again — and, this time, for good.