9 months' OCS to get commissioned as 2LT. 5 months' SISPEC to
get 3SG. 2LT will advance to LTA when near to ORD. That's basically
it for NSFs.
Come reservist, the CPT & 2SG (or higher) promotions will
depend more on unit-appointment designations.
For regular officers, my impression is you'd better make MAJ by age
29-31, & then LTC by age 35-37, or else the "condemned" label
or peaked-out "ceiling" will be increasingly pressured on you. Of
course, the SAF hierarchy is pyramid-structured - the higher you
climb, the more limited the vacancies available.
LHL's status is different; he's a pioneering 1970s SAF scholar from
the days when the military was trying to professionalize its
officer corps. Such high-fliers still climb relatively rapidly
nowadays, but not as quickly. For example, there's an online MINDEF
news release from 2000 that said "LTC Hugh Lim U Yang & LTC Soh
Poh Theen [are] among the youngest LTCs to be promoted to COLs at
the age of 35", as a hint of the SAF promotional pace.
