The problem is that its a bad word problem. It states you need 18 months MINIMUM to get Mitchell, But there is no time between milestone awards and the achievement before. so technically i need my speech in august, get promoted, and then I can take my Mitchell the same day. However if you joined and started promoting right off the bat, then you get your chief at 14 months and then armstrong at 16 months, so you have to wait until you get 18 months, but since most cadets do not get promotions every 60 days (such as my self with 27 months and being a Chief, without the Armstong) We have 18 months since join date and as soon as we get the Armstrong we can take the Mitchell, and this applies to all awards, from Wright to Spaatz