Years in Service at Promotion
Fiscal 2005

Years in
Service at Promotion to:
Air Force
Navy
Army
Marine Corps
DoD Average
E-2
.5
.8
.7
.5
.7
E-3
1.2
1.6
1.5
1.4
1.5
E-4
3.2
3.0
2.7
2.9
3.0
E-5
5.6
5.2
4.8
4.7
5.1
E-6
10.7
9.7
8.3
8.5
9.4
E-7
15.1
14.8
13.3
13.3
14.1
E-8
20.0
19.5
18.9
18.2
19.3
E-9
24.0
23.3
23.9
22.9
23.7


The chart above is a snapshot of total time in service at promotion for enlisted personnel across four branches of service. It uses service promotion data collected by DoD. DoD’s original data showed months in grade at time of promotion to the next higher grade. We thought readers would be more interested in our doing the math to show the cumulative effect. So we converted months to years and we replaced time in grade at promotion with time in service. This allows a service-by-service comparison of relative promotion pace over full careers assuming the pace holds. The chart below is constructed the same way but using 2000 data. It might be argued that our cumulative approach inflates total time in service at promotion particularly for pay grades E-8 and E-9 because these fast burners might have advanced through their lower pay grades ahead of service peers averages. – T.P.



Years in Service at Promotion
Fiscal 2000

Years Served
at Promotion to:
Air Force
Navy
Army
Marine Corps
DoD Average
E-2
.5
.8
.5
.5
.7
E-3
1.2
1.7
1.4
1.4
1.5
E-4
3.0
2.9
2.5
2.9
2.8
E-5
7.0
5.4
4.9
4.5
5.6
E-6
14.4
11.6
8.8
8.0
11.4
E-7
19.8
18.5
14.1
12.3
16.9
E-8
25.6
24.8
19.7
16.8
22.6
E-9
29.8
29.2
24.2
21.6
27.0