More than 17,000 Sailors listed on Fall advancement list Published Dec. 4, 2009 Chief of Naval Personnel Public Affairs WASHINGTON (NNS) -- More than 17,000 Sailors will see their names on the fall advancement list as the Navy prepares to release the E-4, E-5 and E-6 list in the next few days. In his most recent podcast, released Dec. 1, Vice Adm. Mark Ferguson chief of naval personnel, discusses petty officer advancement and trends. "It took a little bit longer to work through the numbers this time," said Ferguson. "We looked very carefully at a change in behavior that's taking place in the force. We are seeing significantly lower attrition and losses. More Sailors in the junior ranks are staying in the Navy." Navy's unprecedented retention and record low attrition means fewer vacancies in the E-4 and E-5 rates for Sailors to advance and resulted in the first decline in overall opportunity in the last four exam cycles, changing from 24.53 percent last cycle to 19.86 percent this cycle. "We're going to promote 3,300 Sailors to E-6, which equates to a rate that's slightly up at about 11 percent, or 1.5 percent [points] higher than the last cycle," said Ferguson. For E-5s, Ferguson said 6,500 Sailors will be advanced across the Navy. That represents a slight decrease of about 2.5 percentage points from last cycle, but results in an overall advancement rate of about 19.5 in this paygrade. "For the E-4s, where we have seen the most significant change in behavior, that advancement rate will be about 34.5 percent," said Ferguson. "This means 7,300 individuals will promote to E-4." More junior Sailors are staying Navy, taking advantage of the comprehensive benefits that are available. As a result, 2,500 fewer E-4 vacancies were open for E-3s to advance to than would have been predicted based on historical behavior. While the Navy continues to advance to vacancy it will also target the best and brightest for advancement, according to Ferguson. "The quality of our force is extraordinary," he said, pointing out that the Navy is seeing positive trends with fewer boot camp losses and higher quality applicants coming into the Navy. To listen to the complete podcast, visit http://www.navy.mil/media/audio/cnp/CNP%20Advancement%20Podcast.MP3. Advancement results will be posted on the Navy Personnel Command's Bupers On-Line Web page at www.npc.navy.mil.