A project was conducted to (1) produce normative data for the Literacy Assessment Battery (LAB) and (2) evaluate the LAB as a potential supplement to the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) for use as a selection and classification instrument for the military services. The distribution of auding and reading skills in the population that applies for military service was first determined by administering the LAB test to more than 4,500 applicants for service; these scores were normed and related to other literacy tests and composite scores of the ASVAB. It was found that auding and reading are highly correlated, indicating that people who are unskilled at reading are the least skilled in comprehending oral language also. However, for the lowest-scoring populations, the lower the reading skill, the more likely the auding skills were better. The predictive validity study showed the value of the LAB for predicting qualification status, predicting attrition, and predicting promotion (although education level emerged as the best single predictor of promotion). It was concluded that understanding the nature of literacy and the relationships of literacy to aptitude assessment can lead to improvements in selection and classification. The LAB should continue to be used in conjunction with the ASVAB to predict success in training schools where the demands for literacy and oracy skills are higher than on the job. (KC)