A study investigated the reading comprehension and educationally related characteristics of the United States Navy's recruit population based on data for selected variables. The variable of primary interest was the recruit's grade level score on reading comprehension; other variable employed in the study were grade level score, years of education, aptitude score, high school graduation status, and month of entry into the navy. Subjects, 66,296 recruits who entered the navy between June 1988 and May 1989, took the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Comprehension Tests and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. Results indicated that: (1) the typical navy recruit has completed slightly less than 12 years of education; (2) the mean reading comprehension score placed the composite group near the tenth grade level and the median near the twelfth grade level; and (3) higher percentages of the recruits who scored below the 6.0 reading grade level were high school graduates in the earlier months of the period. Findings suggest that the recruit population remained relatively stable, showing little variability during recent years with regard to means on years of education, reading comprehension skills, and aptitude scores. Findings also suggest that factors for which distributions by month differ include reading grade level scores, high school graduation status, and high school graduation status of recruits who score below the 6.0 reading grade level. (Nine tables of data are included; 24 references are attached.) (RS)