In order to obtain information on the reading skill levels of Naval recruits for use in improving their reading skills, the United States Navy administered the Gates-MacGinite reading test to all available recruits in its training programs between May 1974 and May 1975. The relationship of those test scores to other personnel data indicated that a significant proportion of the recruits had reading skills well below the reading levels of the manuals that they would encounter in training, that wide ranges of reading skill levels existed in every occupational rating, and that the Navy's classification process tends to concentrate poorer readers in the nondesignated ratings. As a result of this information, three recommendations were made: to assess the reading skills required in each of the many different kinds of reading tasks found in the Navy, to determine the effects of the gap between reading skill and reading difficulty on both training and job performance, and to develop and implement a reading skill requirement for naval enlistment. (RL)