you might make e5 in less then 4 years but you'd have to be exceptional at which point thats a spec 2 with flight pay for another 300 not that anyone would be aircrew enlisted in that short period of time. Most of the FE's were about 10years in before they reached that plateau .
Took me 5 years to make E-5.
The pay that I showed you for the Canadian Army was for E-5 as well.
Why do most Crew Chiefs have 10 years of experience before they can begin to fly? I think that is rather odd, because if you are good at your job and learn well there is no reason for you to have to wait that long. In my opinion it is a waist of a good flight engineer. I only had about 4 months experience before I started flying and I learned more as a Mechanic as a Crew Chief than I did in the Maintenance Company.