Since being commissioned, it seemed like we have had acting Surgeon Generals as often as nominated and confirmed surgeon generals. To put that thesis to the test, I used data on acting and appointed Surgeon general terms from Wikipedia. I took the dates in the table as factual, and started my analysis on the term prior to the first acting Surgeon General on the list, therefore my analysis spanned 12/18/1969 to the end term of our last acting Surgeon General on 11/2/2009. Here's the raw data table:








This analysis spans 39.3 years and over the period, the Surgeon Generals were in office 2.2 years for every year of acting Surgeons General. However, lets look at the last 20 versus the first 20 years:








The data show that in the last 20 years (1990 - 2009), Confirmed SG years to Acting SG years have decreased 41% compared to the prior 20 year period (1969 - 1990). In the first 20 year period, career Corps officers were acting SG's 34% of the time. In the second 20 year period, career Corps officers took the job 59% of the time. Although this analysis is not exact, it shows that in the recent two decade history of the Corps, career USPHS officers hold the office of SG for longer periods than in the past. This illustrates the inability of the current nomination and confirmation process to maintain the office outside the ranks of career Corps officers and provides a rationale for swift appointment of the SG among officers ready and available to serve as appointees to the position.