I was 17½ months from commissioning (OCS, when it was right across the street from API) to wings and I started the FRS a month or two after that. This was exceptionally fast when I went through (and purely by circumstances and dumb luck). Out of my FRS class of six, one guy commissioned a few months before me (and did Primary in Corpus Christi, so round trip PCS moved or him) and the other four were 26 months from commission to wings.
I know you've asked probing questions on here about the chaos and inefficient nature of naval flight training. Those are good questions and your intuition is correct.
Not to knock on naval flight training either- both of the places where we have primary training have a lot of weather days that we have to work around by either delaying a flight, adapting the plan during the flight, or outright canceling. I think for budding aviators to experience that, it's intangible but priceless- much better than learning to fly in a location with 360 clear days a year. But it does come at a cost, and we don't help ourselves any when we pile on it with spare parts shortages, shortchanging instructor manning, and a few other self-inflicted challenges.
