[Gay State Conservative]

But on the flip side I was an E-4 after six months...

Does the Navy ordinarily promote that quickly...or is it just "the Silent Service"?

...and never crawled in the mud.

Apart from BCT,neither did I.One of the many advantages of being in command of a typewriter and some filing cabinets. ;-)

[OCCASparky]

Does the Navy ordinarily promote that quickly...or is it just "the Silent Service"?

Not ordinarily, and not even all submarine rates. Nukes and other "Advanced Programs" typically come in as E-2's or E-3's (all nukes are E-3), and get "pushbutton" E-4 after completion of required schools. Typically, the average sailor makes E-4 in around 3 years, E-5 in about 5 years, and E-6 in 9 years.

[Pan_Yan]

Now my info is a few years old so the numbers might be outdated. This is how it worked when I went through in the late 80s early 90s. Everyone in the ‘nuclear pipeline’ is an E-4 before they enter Naval Nuclear Power School. Usually, the Navy gets Nucs by finding college kids that have drunk all their money away, offers them a few thousand dollars to enlist and E-4 out of A school. They sign up for six years because nuc training is almost 2 years. Then they give them another $10-15K for reenlisting at their 2 year point, when most haven’t been on deployment. Now the Navy owns you for eight years. After eight years most are disgruntled and turn down the next reenlistment bonus even though when I got out it was between $30 - 45K for an additional two years.