The long exam nightmare is over for dozens of sailors who took their advancement tests onboard the guided-missile cruiser Antietam only to learn that their results got lost in the mail.

“The sheets were delivered and processed by Naval Education and Training Professional Development Center on Wednesday. Fifty-eight Antietam sailors were selected for advancement," said Naval Education and Training Command spokesman Cmdr. James D. Stockman in a Friday email to Navy Times.

On Thursday, the warship’s commanding officer, Capt. George A. Kessler Jr., took to the Antietam’s official Facebook page to announce all 58 sailors who made rate.

“A special note of thanks to the team at NETPDC,” added Kessler. “They expedited the grading, uploading, and publishing of the results. Their assistance as we worked through this issue was outstanding and I am grateful for their dedication and professional support.”

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It was a happy ending to a postal odyssey that should’ve ended at the Pensacola-based grading facility long before Nov. 20, when other commands worldwide began telling junior enlisted shipmates that they made the cut and were being advanced.

Instead, on Nov. 21 Kessler informed his sailors on Facebook that the exams seemed to have disappeared inside the military postal system.

He told them that they were received at the U.S. Army’s Camp Walker Post Office in Daegu, South Korea, but should have been shipped to the U.S. Air Force’s Osan Air Mobility Command on their way to Naval Education Training Professional Development Center in Florida.

On Nov. 22, Kessler reappeared on Facebook to say that Fleet Mail Center Yokosuka sent a team of postal clerks to Yokota Air Base to retrieve the lost exams, which then were sent by Express Mail service on Nov. 23 to Pensacola.

The problems with getting the parcel to Pensacola has triggered a rising chorus of critics asking why it took Navy officials so long to realize that the Antietam’s E-4 to E-6 results had been lost in the first place.

Formal Navy guidance to Education Service Officers cautions that both “the candidates and the commands anxiously await the examination results," which should be received by the commands about three months after candidates take the tests.

After sailors finish their exams, regulations require commands to forward all returns for each pay grade to NETPDTC by U.S. registered mail or government-contracted overnight delivery within seven working days.

Answer sheets and a report chronicling the destruction of extra forms must be posted to the same address by a letter of transmittal, according to the official Navy guidance.

It remains unclear how the Antietam’s command sent off the results and then monitored their progress through the postal system to guarantee the shipment arrived in Florida.

Naval Education and Training Command’s Stockman said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on what occurred before the results arrived in Florida. He pointed Navy Times to the Antietam’s chain of command in Japan.

Emails from Navy Times to 7th Fleet and Antietam officials were not answered on Friday, however.

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Now that the Antietam’s results have been received, processed, graded and published, a total of 22,279 sailors throughout the Navy moved up this cycle, about one out of every four who sat for the fall exams.

Here are all the selectees from the Antietam:

STG2 ADAMS KOURTNEY

CTT2 AYALA ALAN

CS3 BALAGTAS RAFAEL

CTT1 BLATCHFORD HALEY

GM3 BROADWELL DUANE

SH3 CAMACHO CHRISTOPHER

FC2 CAMPBELL ANGELIA

FCA2 CARNEY DONALD

CTM2 CLOUTIER JULIAN

FCA2 CURRAN RICHARD

CTR2 DAHLKE JACOB

FCA2 DELATORRE JAIRO

DC2 FONSECA ALFREDO

OS3 FRIZZELL MICHAEL

STG2 FURLONG ELIZABETH

GM3 GARZA JEFFREY

BM2 GILLILAN ANTHONY

BM3 GONZALEZ VICTOR

STG2 GUAJARDO JORGE

OS3 HAMAD BASIL

OS2 HERON DWIGHT

GSM2 HERR COURTNEY

ET2 HUTTO JACOB

FC2 JENKIN JOSHUA

ET2 JONES AUSTIN

LS3 JONES BRAXTON

OS1 LACY SHELDON

CTR2 MANZOSEXTON LEVI

STG2 MISSIG NATHAN

FCA2 MONTGOMERY CODY

DC3 POSADA BRIAN

GSM1 RAMOS MARCO

CS1 REY ROBERT

GSM2 ROARK EZRA

QM3 ROBINSON BERNARD

CTT2 RUMINER MATTHEW

FC2 SEWELL GARRETT

FCA2 SHAFE JOSHUA

GM1 SPANO MATTHEW

OS2 SQUIRES WILLIAM

FC2 SULLIVAN DALTON

FCA2 VILLAMIL JACLYN

IT2 WILCOX KYLE

FCA2 WILSON SAVANNAH

GSE2 WYNKOOP MICHAEL

IT2 ACEVEDOGONZALEZ FRANCISCO

OS1 ARROYO ANTONIO DEJESUS

DC1 BARNETT JAMES WILLIAM

GM2 BORKA MICHAEL

GM2 CRAIN PHILLIP

GSM3 DOUSE JULIUS

YN2 FLORES JOHN

GM1 FOX MARCOVINCENTE

GM2 FUENTES KRIZ

GM3 JACKSON JARED

IT3 MARSH KEGAN

HT3 NOON NOAH

GSE2 WILSON KENYATTA

Navy Times congratulates all the selectees!

About Carl Prine

Prine came to Navy Times after stints at the San Diego Union-Tribune and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He served in the Marine Corps and the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. His awards include the Joseph Galloway Award for Distinguished Reporting on the military, a first prize from Investigative Reporters & Editors and the Combat Infantryman Badge.

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