The chief of naval personnel convened the fiscal 2018 chief petty officer selection board June 26 in Millington, Tennessee.
Annually, it's the largest selection board the Navy holds, and will take as long as three weeks to review the records of almost 18,500 eligible first class petty officers competing for almost 4,400 sets of chief's anchors.
That makes the chance to make chief just under 24 percent this year, up from last year's chance of about 21 percent and nearly equal to the opportunity of two years ago.
It's the first uptick in the chance to make chief petty officer since the recent high opportunity of almost 27 percent in fiscal 2014.
It's also well above the 10-year average of an almost-22 percent chance to make chief petty officer, Navy officials say.
For more detailed information, check out this year's quotas.
Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.
