How to become a lieutenant colonel in the US Army
Lieutenant colonel is a rank, pay grade O-5, reached only by promotion board selection after roughly sixteen to eighteen years of commissioned service. There is no direct-entry route in the ordinary case. What you can plan is the commissioning decision at the start and the milestones along the way.
Commissioning
West Point, Army ROTC, Officer Candidate School, or a direct commission. Direct commissioning of senior professionals exists in the AMEDD, JAG and Chaplain branches and follows different rules.
The timeline
The Army's own officer career timeline puts the captain board at about four years, the major and Intermediate Level Education board at about ten, and the lieutenant colonel board at sixteen to eighteen, with retirement eligibility at twenty. 10 U.S.C. § 619(a)(2) requires three years in grade as a major before consideration. A HQDA centralized promotion selection board convened under 10 U.S.C. § 611(a) makes the selection, in the primary zone at roughly sixteen years or below-the-zone earlier. Command selection is a separate board.
What catches people out
The same three-year time-in-grade rule in § 619(a)(2) applies identically to captain, major and lieutenant colonel — the statute makes no distinction. So almost the entire sixteen-year gap to O-5 comes from Army policy and board timing, not from law. And § 619(a)(3) again allows the Secretary to lengthen it.
Lieutenant colonel salary in the US Army
Lieutenant colonel is O-5, and because it is reached at roughly sixteen to eighteen years of service, the column that applies to you is the right-hand side of the table, not the left. An O-5 at sixteen years earns $11,391.30 and at twenty $12,032.70. The step from O-4 to O-5 at the same length of service is worth roughly $1,500 a month.
| Grade | ≤2 yrs | Over 4 | Over 8 | Over 12 | Over 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O-1 | $4,150.20 | $5,222.40 | flat | flat | flat |
| O-2 | $4,782.00 | $6,484.50 | $6,617.70 | flat | flat |
| O-3 | $5,534.10 | $7,382.70 | $8,125.50 | $8,788.20 | $9,004.20 |
| O-4 | $6,294.60 | $7,881.00 | $8,816.40 | $9,888.30 | $10,509.90 |
| O-5 | $7,295.40 | $8,894.10 | $9,461.40 | $10,271.70 | $12,032.70 |
| O-6 | $8,751.30 | $10,245.00 | $10,725.00 | $10,783.50 | $13,751.10 |
These are basic pay only. They exclude the Basic Allowance for Housing, which varies by duty station and dependants, the Basic Allowance for Subsistence, and any special or incentive pays. Both allowances are untaxed, so total compensation is meaningfully higher than the table shows — comparing a military figure against a civilian salary is not comparing like with like.
Source: DFAS 2026 Basic Pay tables, effective 1 January 2026.
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