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While all Air Force military
personnel are referred to as Airmen, it can specifically refer to
the pay grades of E-1 through E-4 which are below the level of
non-commissioned officers (NCOs). Above the paygrade of E-4 (E-5
through E-9) all ranks fall into the category of NCO and are further
subdivided into NCOs (E-5 & E-6) and Senior NCOs (E-7 through E-9);
the term Junior NCO is sometimes used to refer to staff sergeants
and technical sergeants (E-5 & E-6).
The Air Force is also the only one of the five branches of the
United States military where NCO status is achieved at the grade of
E-5. In all other branches NCO status is archived at the grade of
E-4 (a Corporal in the Army and Marine Corps, Petty Officer Third
Class in the Navy and Coast Guard).
Although the Air Force became an
independent service with the National Security Act of 1947, it
retained the Army Air Force rank structure and corresponding
insignia of years past. This rank structure provided for seven
enlisted ranks: Private, Private First Class, Corporal/Technician
Fifth Grade, Sergeant/Technician Fourth Grade, Staff
Sergeant/Technician Third Grade, Technical Sergeant and Master
Sergeant/First Sergeant. Additionally, Air Force personnel were
still referred to as soldiers.
Changes to the rank structure were proposed almost immediately but
did not start occurring until the next year. Sometime during late
1947 and early 1948, new chevron designs were tested at Bolling Air
Force Base. The style preferred was the one used today, the inverted
chevron. Air Force Chief of Staff General Vandenberg approved the
new chevron on 9 March 1948.
Although the new chevrons were approved, the titles did not change.
This change did not come swiftly. Two years would pass before
General Vandenberg ordered all enlisted personnel in the Air Force
be referred to as Airman (singular) and Airmen (plural). A further
two years would go by while the enlisted rank structure was studied
and changes proposed. The end results finally became effective on 24
April 1952 with the release of a revised Air Force Regulation (AFR)
39-36. This revision changed the names of the enlisted ranks to
Basic Airman, Airman Third Class, Airman Second Class, Airman First
Class, Staff Sergeant, Technical Sergeant and Master Sergeant.
With the new titles came a proposal for new rank insignia for Airman
Third Class through Airman First Class. The proposed insignia would
have horizontal stripes for Airman Third Class through Airman First
Class while NCOs keep their inverted chevrons. The purpose of the
two different types of insignia was to more readily differentiate
the airman and NCO tiers while increasing the prestige of the
latter. These were not approved at the time of the release of the
revised regulation. When they were finally approved by General
Vandenberg in December, 1952, procurement of these stripes was
deferred until approximately June, 1955. This change would
eventually be reversed on 12 March 1956 by General Vandenberg's
successor, General Twining.
During his tenure, General Twining also approved the diamond
insignia for First Sergeants. This became available on 21 September
1955. With this approval, the foundations of the first seven ranks
and insignia the Air Force uses today were in place.
The next major change came with the Military Pay Act of 1958. This
established the ranks of E-8 and E-9 but without titles. The titles
of Senior Master Sergeant and Chief Master Sergeant were chosen
between July and December of 1958 after comments were solicited from
the major Air Force commands of the day. After much discussion, the
insignia for these two ranks were designed by simply adding one and
two chevrons to the top of the Master Sergeant insignia (for E-8 and
E-9 respectively), each stripe pointing up.
Although the rank of Basic Airman was renamed Airman Basic on 5
February 1959, the insignia did not change.
The next series of changes to Air Force enlisted ranks did not occur
for almost eight years. In January, 1967 the position of Chief
Master Sergeant of the Air Force was created. This position gained
its own special insignia, the Chief Master Sergeant chevrons with a
wreath encircling the center star. Also, the release of a revised
AFR 39-36 on 19 October 1967 renamed Airman Third Class, Airman
Second Class and Airman First Class to Airman, Airman First Class
and Sergeant respectively. This returned Sergeant to the rank
structure as the first step in the NCO tier. No changes to the
respective insignias were made.
In a 30 December 1975 directive the grade of Sergeant was split into
two separate ranks while retaining the grade of E-4. Senior Airman
would be the last junior enlisted tier rank while Sergeant would
remain the first rank in the NCO tier. The impetus behind this was
to laterally promote senior E-4 airmen who were ready for NCO
responsibilities but not prepared to take on the role of a Staff
Sergeant. To differentiate the two ranks, the directive changed the
silver star in the center of Airman, Airman First Class and Senior
Airman changed to blue while the star on Sergeant chevrons remained
silver. Having two ranks within one grade mirrored the Army's
Specialist/Corporal division of E-4. This dual role would last until
March 1991 when then Chief of Staff General McPeak terminated the
rank of Sergeant. This termination was due in part to the manning
reductions that occurred in the post-Cold War drawdown of the early
1990s.
The year 1991 also saw the last major change to the enlisted rank
insignia. In October 1991 General McPeak and Chief Master Sergeant
of the Air Force Pfingston announced that the senior NCO tier would
have new chevron layouts and that all chevrons would have a white
star in the center. The change in senior NCO chevrons was the first
since chevrons came into being in 1948. Since that time, Master
Sergeant had been composed of six inverted chevrons (six down) with
none pointing up, Senior Master Sergeant six down with one up and
Chief Master Sergeant six down with two up. The new layout changed
the insignia to the current layout (see chart above). The second
change, changing the star color to white, was actually two changes
in one. It added a star to the Airman through Senior Airman rank
insignias where there had been none since 1975 (the blue star
carried by these chevrons was the same color as the blue in the
stripes giving the impression that the star was not there) and
changing the silver star on the NCO and senior NCO chevrons to
white.
In November 1998, the duty position of Senior Enlisted Advisor was
changed to Command Chief Master Sergeant. Along with the change, the
addition of a star in the empty blue area between the chevrons was
added to denote those holding this position.
In November 2004, the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force
insignia was updated to include the Great Seal of the United States
with a white star on either side. These additions were placed in the
empty blue area between the chevrons.
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