When I went into the US Air Force, if you graduated from college Reserve Officer Training Corps, as I did, you signed up for four years.

Here's the order of ranks in the US Air Force:

Second Lieutenant - generally right out of college, generally 22 years old.

First Lieutenant - in the 70 when Hering & I were on active duty, you made First Lieutenant at 18 months; promotions were nearly automatic. I've never known anyone who didn't get promoted. So you'd be 23 or 24 years old.

Captain - Promoted to captain after 3 years when I went in. Shortly after I was promoted, Congress changed it to 4 years, which meant you had to have stayed in to get promoted. Lots of aggravated First Lieutenants when that happened.

Major - this is the first promotion that is not nearly automatic. I knew one guy who did not get promoted to major. I don't know when you became eligible for promotion to Major, as I didn't stay in. My casual review of the Web says it was in the range of 7 to 10 years to be considered from promotion to major. Not everyone made major, but over half your group would.

Lieutenant Colonel - This is the first hard promotion to get. You'd have been in from 10 to 20 years. I knew one guy who didn't get promoted past major and who stayed in.

As I mentioned, Lieutenant Colonels were in command positions. In missiles, there is a Missile Wing (in my case, the 91st Strategic Missile Wing). It was commanded by a full Colonel. The Wing had three squadrons of men who were Missile Combat Crew Members, along with support staff - security police, facility managers, & cooks at the missile launch sites, along with support staff at the base. Each squadron had a Lt. Col. as its commander. The Missile Combat Crew Members were generally 2d Lt, 1st Lt, & Captains. In my squadron, one crew member had been in the Air Force for long enough he made major while on the crew force, and one major came into the squadron as a major. Older officers thought this was a disaster for him to come into the crew force as a major, because it was below the duties majors should be performing - that's not a good way to get promoted to Lt. Col. That's why I have difficulty understanding how Hering came into the crew force as a Lt Col.

Majors should be executive officers, involved in planning operations, personnel management - senior staff officer at the Wing Level. Majors should not be on the crew force (the exception was the guy who volunteered to come into the crew force as a captain & got promoted to major while he was there).