[gaius]

The US Naval Academy alone graduates 1000 people a year. Where do they all go? What do they all do?

In the Star Trek reboot Kirk goes straight from Academy sophomore to commanding a capital ship in a matter of days.

It is not like that. It takes many years. Only a small percentage of Academy graduates will ever get there. And many have no ambition to either, there are lots of other challenging and prestigious jobs in the Navy. You could be a fighter pilot or a SEAL platoon commander, neither of those career paths leads to commanding a destroyer.

[bkohlmann]

But being a fighter pilot (and now, very rarely, a helo pilot), is the only way to command an aircraft carrier. Which is a pretty cool command!