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From the Defense Department Statistics on Education:

Table 2.7 Levels of Education of FY 2002 Active Component NPS Accessions, by Service, and Civilians 18-24 Years Old (Percent)
Education Level¹	Army	Navy	Marine Corps	Air Force	DoD	18- to 24-Year-Old Civilians*
Tier 1: Regular High School Graduate or Higher	86.4 (91.4**)	91.9	97.4	98.6	91.9 (94.0**)	79.4
Tier 2: GED, Alternative Credentials Alternative Credentials	13.6	4.6	2.8	1.4	7.2	79.4
Tier 3: No Credentials	0.0	3.4	0.2	0.0	0.8	20.6
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
College Experience (Part of Tier 1)²	10.6	6.4	1.9	12.7	8.5	46.7
Columns may not add to total due to rounding. * Civilian numbers and percentages combine Tiers 1 and 2 as civilian data include GED certificates with high school graduate rates. ** Tier 1 data calculated excluding GED+ participants from total accessions. GED+ is an experimental program enlisting up to 4,000 active duty Army applicants with a GED or no credential who have met special screening criteria for enlistment. ¹ Service data from OUSD(P&R)(MPP)/Accession Policy have been reviewed and updated by the Services for official submission. Data presented in this table may differ slightly from the data shown in appendix tables that are taken from DMDC's USMEPCOM Edit File. ² College experience data from the Services are defined as those individuals with the following credentials: associate degree, professional nursing diploma, baccalaureate, master's, post master's, doctorate, first-professional, or completed one semester of college. Also see Appendix Tables B-7 (Education by Service and Gender) and B-8 (Education by Service and Race/Ethnicity). Source: Service data are from OUSD(MPP)/Accession Policy—submitted in accordance with DoD Instruction 7730.56. USMC college experience data are from DMDC’s USMEPCOM Edit File. Civilian data are from Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey File, October 2001 – September 2002.

SOURCE:

http://www.defenselink.mil/prhome/poprep2002/chapter2/c2_education.htm

Isn’t it true that all officers have undergraduate degrees and the vast majority of them above lieutenant have at least one advanced degree? I’ve dated some majors and colonels and they all had either a couple of master’s degrees or a doctorate. Do you have to get the advanced degree before the military will promote you, or does it come later? I ask because my boy wants to be an officer and we’re trying to do some planning here.

Thanks for that extremely useful chart!

I believe I have persuaded my gung-ho son that a high school diploma is necessary before he joins the USMC. I pointed out that if 50 guys are bucking for promotion, and 49 of them have a high school diploma, who do you think is going to be kicked out of consideration first?

But there's nothing like actual numbers to give reality to a situation.

bookmark...good info.