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22,516 sailors moving up to E-4, E-5 and E-6

The Navy will announce the advancement of 21,739 active-duty sailors to the ranks of E-4, E-5 and E-6 this week. Another 777 will move up in the full-time support community’s petty officer ranks.

The chance to advance in the spring advancement exam cycle remained stable at 24.69 percent, increasing by 0.07 percentage points over last fall’s 24.62 percent shot at moving up.

“Overall opportunity has been successfully maintained at a steady level and remains at the eight-year average as the force structure begins to level out,” said Lt. Cmdr Kim Pizanti, who heads enlisted force-shaping and advancements for the chief of naval personnel in Arlington, Va. “Preventing large fluctuations from cycle to cycle helped provide stable opportunity and should continue into the future.”

The only downside to the cycle was at E-6, where opportunity decreased less than 1 percentage point, from 13.06 percent to 12.14. There are 29,234 test passers competing for 3,549 quotas.

The chance to make second class rose by nearly 2 percentage points from 23.11 percent last fall to 23.28 percent on this cycle. Here, 35,410 test passers are competing for 8,242 quotas.

The percentage of those getting into the petty officer ranks on this cycle also rose, by 1.5 percentage points, from 41.04 percent on the last cycle to 42.54 percent this spring. Competing for those 9,948 third-class crows were 23,386 test passers.

For FTS, opportunity rose across the board.

At E-6, this means an increase in both quotas and opportunity, as 1,649 sailors are competing for 197 quotas, creating a 11.95 percent chance to advance. That’s up from just 162 quotas and a 9.07 percent shot at moving up last fall.

At E-5, there was an increase of 38 quotas over last cycle, with 938 sailors competing for 273 quotas — a 29.10 percent chance to sew on a second stripe. That’s up from 27.07 last cycle.

The largest increase in opportunity this cycle came for the FTS sailors seeking to make third class. A total of 485 E-3s passed their exams this cycle, and 308 of those will sew on a crow. That’s an increase of 37 quotas from last cycle, boosting overall opportunity by 10.25 percentage points to 63.51 percent.

The charts

Spring 2008 cycle active-duty petty officer advancement quotas

Spring 2008 cycle full-time support petty officer advancement quotas