This is a practice within all branches of the military of letting NOC’s and Officers wear a higher rank prior to their actual promotion. This is only done when the person has actually been selected for promotion. Take for example, when I took my advancement test for E5. I passed the test and was selected for advancement. As was standard practice our ship had one large promotion ceremony where every enlisted person who had been selected fro the next rank were frocked.

Although we were not being paid for our new rank we were allowed to wear this new rank and then also assume the responsibilities of that office. The ceremony was held in late January and I did not actually start to get paid for E5 until May of the same year. This will also be done to officers and senior enlisted sailors.

Each step in rank involves different responsibilities so allowing sailors to wear their next rank prior to being paid for it will allow them to grow into their new rank. However if you should happen to get into trouble and end up loosing rank because of it, you loose the rank based on what you are getting paid for at the time. So, if you are frocked to E5, but at still an E4 on paper, and you get in trouble, you can go down to E3. Trust me, that hurts a good deal.

We had a sailor who that happened to. He was an E4 and had been selected for E5. He had been frocked and was 1 month short of getting paid for it. He got in trouble for failing to follow procedure. He was dropped down to E3. So he had to start all of his time for advancement all over again. By the time he made it back to E5 he should have been taking the E6 test.

So the moral of the story is, be careful, or it will hurt in the long run.