Wed 19 Jan 2022, 19:31
Regarding speed of promotion, during WWII U.S. Army officers often spent one year or less at each company-grade rank (up to captain). Past that promotion slowed, but there are quite a few instances of men who graduated from USMA during the war ending it as majors or even lieutenant colonels.
My grandfather was a newly-promoted reserve captain in 1940. By the middle of 1944 he was a lieutenant colonel commanding a battalion. His brother had no prior military service but was a captain when he was killed in action in 1944. You just have to throw all your ideas about time in grade out the window. My grandfather's executive officer was a major who'd graduated from USMA in 1942 so his promotion was quite rapid.
Granted, this was in the context of an army that was both rapidly expanding and taking significant casualties. Whether the armies in the T:2000 4E setting expanded much is not clear to me. (In 1E/2E, its clear they had.)
Even an army that is not expanding may have fairly rapid promotion in wartime. During Vietnam, USMA cadets were expected to achieve "tracks in two"--that is, they would be captains two years after commissioning. (The name derives from the two-bar insignia of the captain, which looks sort of like railroad tracks and ties.)
So it's not all that implausible and, on the specific issue of lieutenants being promoted rapidly, I would say that is precisely the pattern you see in wartime.