What Are the Regulations for Frocking Enlisted Sailors?

Frocking in the Navy is an administrative authorization that lets a selected enlisted sailor wear the insignia and use the title of the next higher paygrade before the official advancement date, while continuing to draw the pay and allowances of their current grade. The sailor takes on the responsibilities and courtesies of the new rank right away. Every paycheck, allowance, and pay document still reflects the permanent, lower paygrade until the actual advancement effective date arrives. The practice is governed by MILPERSMAN 1420-060 and covers paygrades E-4 through E-9.¹

What Frocking Actually Changes

Frocking is not a promotion. It is an administrative authorization to assume the title, wear the uniform, and perform the duties of the higher paygrade without any of the financial entitlements that come with permanent advancement. The instruction is explicit that frocking does not change a member’s permanent status or authorize payment of any entitlements governed by statute or regulation.¹

The reason the Navy uses it is practical. Advancement cycles create a gap between the day a sailor is selected and the day their pay actually changes. If a command needs someone functioning as a Chief Petty Officer now, frocking lets that sailor step into the role immediately and carry the appropriate authority in the chain of command while the pay system catches up.

The gap is entirely financial. A frocked Petty Officer First Class wearing Chief Petty Officer insignia still receives E-6 pay until the advancement effective date. There is no back pay covering the frocking period once the permanent advancement lands. The sailor acknowledges this in writing before being frocked.

Who Is Eligible, and When It Can Happen

Selection for advancement is the threshold requirement. Sailors competing for E-7 through E-9 must be chosen by a senior enlisted advancement selection board.² Sailors at E-4 through E-6 become eligible when their command receives the Enlisted Status Verification Report or Rating Change Authorization confirming results from the Navy-wide advancement cycle.¹

Selection alone isn’t enough. Several conditions disqualify a sailor from being frocked:

Failure to meet the Navy’s physical fitness, weight, or body fat standards. A single PFA failure blocks both frocking and advancement until the sailor passes a command-directed mock PFA to regain eligibility.
Advancement under any accelerated advancement program.
Withdrawal of the advancement recommendation. If the recommendation is pulled after frocking has occurred, the frocked rate is vacated and the sailor reverts to the permanent paygrade.

The command also has to verify that the sailor meets all required time-in-service and time-in-grade eligibility dates before authorizing the action.

Timing depends on paygrade. For E-8 and E-9 selectees, frocking is authorized upon receipt of the official selection board results, released by NAVADMIN message. For E-7, frocking is authorized no earlier than the first advancement increment following board results, which in practice aligns with the end of the CPO induction season and its fall pinning ceremony. For E-4 through E-6, frocking is authorized as soon as the command receives the Enlisted Status Verification Report or Rating Change Authorization.¹

One point that trips people up: the NAVADMIN announcing selection board results is authorization for frocking, not for actual advancement. The advancement effective date is published separately, and only that date triggers pay at the new rate.

Costs and Consequences to Know About

Frocking creates some real out-of-pocket and career effects that a selectee should weigh before signing the acknowledgment.

Uniforms Come Out of the Sailor’s Pocket

Frocked sailors must purchase any new uniforms and insignia at their own expense. The Navy’s uniform allowance is only authorized upon permanent advancement. For E-7 selectees, the transition to the Chief Petty Officer uniform can be a significant expense that falls entirely on the sailor during the frocking period.¹

Evaluations Use the Frocked Paygrade

Performance evaluations are prepared in the sailor’s frocked paygrade, not the permanent one. A frocked E-7 is evaluated against the standards and ranking pool of other E-7s, which affects future advancement competitiveness before the pay ever catches up.¹

Discipline Runs Off the Permanent Paygrade

Any punitive or administrative action against a frocked sailor is based on the permanent paygrade, not the frocked one. If a frocked E-7 faces non-judicial punishment or court-martial, the proceedings reference the E-6 paygrade the sailor actually holds.¹ A reduction in grade under the UCMJ can only reduce the sailor from that permanent paygrade. Any disciplinary action serious enough to cause withdrawal of the advancement recommendation will also vacate the frocking, so the sailor loses both the pending promotion and the frocked status at the same time.

Frocking Is Voluntary, and It Can Be Taken Away

A sailor who has been selected for advancement can decline to be frocked. The instruction requires an affirmative election before the action takes effect. The sailor signs a NAVPERS 1070/613 Administrative Remarks entry acknowledging that they will not receive the pay or allowances of the higher paygrade, that uniform costs are their responsibility, that retroactive pay and reimbursements are not authorized, and that the commanding officer can vacate the frocked rate.¹

Two situations end a frocking before permanent advancement. If the underlying advancement recommendation is withdrawn for any reason, the frocked rate is automatically vacated. The commanding officer can also vacate the frocked rate independently, a possibility the signed acknowledgment spells out.

When frocking is vacated, the sailor reverts to wearing the insignia and using the title of the permanent paygrade. Because frocking never changed the sailor’s permanent status, revocation isn’t a formal reduction in grade. It’s the removal of an administrative authorization, not a demotion in the legal sense.

1
MyNavyHR. MILPERSMAN 1420-060 – Frocking of Enlisted Personnel
2
MyNavyHR. Navy Boards 101 Fact Sheet