[Frank Olynyk]

Zdenek,

The problem with your requests for promotion dates is that a very high percentage of the pilots in the US services in WW2 enlisted in the Reserves of their respective service. Very few came from the Regular Army, Navy or USMC. As far as I am aware the Army, and later the Air Force, did not publish registers of officers in the Reserves, and so the dates of promotion cannot be tracked. If someone was able to transfer to the Regular service then they would appear in the published registers. Thus the only source of this information for Reservists is the individual himself, or the 201 file for the individual held in St Louis. 201 Files are not available to the general public, and for anyone in the Army in WW2, and the Air Force with names starting H-Z these records were destroyed in the fire at the Military Personnel Records Center in 1973 (the Center has posted a long article on the fire on its website). The Navy published Reserve Registers on Jan 1, 1943 and July 1, 1944, and possibly one in 1946 (which I do not have). USMC Lineal Lists show officers on active duty, and after the war most Reservists would have been active for two weeks in each year, except for those recalled during the Korean War. Thus, in practical terms, tracking down all the promotion dates is an impossible task.

Frank.