Military Monday: Rank

I'm a little late getting this up... but I wanted to participate in the series this week because I'm always asking questions about rank and trying to remember everything.

Cat over at 5 Nuts in a Nutshell gave some great information in her post and you can click the button to head over there.

So, to start with, rank in the military is the official title of a member.

There are two main sections of rank in the military: Enlisted and Officers

I don't know as much about the Enlisted corp since Brig is an Officer, but here is the information that I do know. (At least with my chart in front of me.)

Oh, and I'll be focusing on Air Force, since that is the branch of military I know best.

Enlisted= An individual who is not commissioned. Either an AMN (rank E1-E4) or an NCO (rank E5-E9)
AMN = Airmen
NCO = Non-commissioned officer

Air Force is the 3rd section down.

E-1 = Airman Basic (AB)
E-2 = Airman (AMN)
E-3 = Airman First Class (A1C)
E-4 = Senior Airman (SrA)
E-5 = Staff Sergeant (SSgt)
E-6 = Technical Sergeant (TSgt)
E-7 = Master Sergeant (MSgt)
E-8 = Senior Master Sergeant (SMSgt)
E-9 = Chief Master Sergeant (CMSgt)
E-9 There is also the Command Chief Master Sergeant (CCM)
E-9 Special = Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force (CMSAF)

There are also "First Sergeants." They are usually E-7 through E-9.

Now this is how I try to remember the ranks...

When you first enlist you are an Airman Basic (AB) and don't have any rank insignia until you finish basic and become and Airman (AMN). At that point you have one set of stripes. (refer to the chart above for pictures.)

1, 2, and 3 sets of stripes are the Airman ranks. 2 stripes is Airman First Class (A1C) and 3 stripes is a Senior Airman (SrA).

As soon as you get a stripe underneath you get into the Sergeant ranks.

So, Airmen and Sergeants... easy enough right?

There are two stripes that go underneath. A Staff Sergeant has one stripe underneath and a Tech Sergeant has 2 stripes underneath.

Master Sergeant adds one on top, Senior Master Sergeant is 2 on top and Chief Master Sergeant is 3 stripes on top.

And that is all I basically know about Enlisted Rank.

On to the Officers:

Officer= an individual who is commissioned

Air Force is the first section, along with Army and Marines.

O-1 = Second Lieutenant (2d Lt)
O-2 = First Lieutenant (1st Lt)
O-3 = Captain (Capt)
O-4 = Major (Maj)
O-5 = Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col)

O-6 = Colonel (Col)
O-7 = Brigadier General (Brig Gen)
O-8 = Major General (Maj Gen)
O-9 = Lieutenant General (Lt Gen)
O-10 = General Air Force Chief of Staff (Gen)
Special = General of the Air Force (GOAF) -- reserved for wartime

Within the Officers you have Company Grade Officers and Field Grade Officers.

• Company Grade Officers (CGO) = Captains and Lieutenants
• Field Grade = Majors, Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels

The 2d Lt insignia is a gold bar, and then once you become a 1st Lt your insignia is a silver bar. Captain is two silver bars. The Major insignia is a gold oak leaf and then once you become a Lt Col the insignia is a silver oak leaf. After the oak leaf is the bird insignia for Col. After those ranks you get into the Generals and their insignias are stars.

These are some nicknames I've heard:

• Butterbar - slang for the gold bar insignia of a 2d Lt
• Railroad tracks - slang for double bar insignia of a Captain
• Bird or Bird Colonel - refers to the insignia for a Colonel which is a bird

And here is a fun little mnemonic device that Brig taught me to remember the order of the Generals:

Be My Little Girl

Brigadier General [*]
Major General [**]
Lieutenant General [***]
General [****]

(The *'s represent the number of stars in the Generals rank insignia.)

It's really nice to know and understand the rank. I usually have to review it every once in awhile. And it's important for a military member to know the ranks because they are supposed to salute anyone higher in rank than themselves while in uniform. Brig even told me once that if you see a Colonel or General's car on base you are supposed to stop and salute as it drives by.

Also, to tell Enlisted vs. Officer apart, just know that in the Air Force the Enlisted insignia is on the arm of the uniform and Officer is on the collar.

And that's the rank in the Air Force. The Enlisted members WAY outnumber the Officers. I am always blown away at how vast the difference is when we go to various military functions.

Brig is in the Civil Engineering Group, or CEG, and within that group there are a total of approx. 400 members, 15 of which are Officers, some Civilian workers, and the rest Enlisted.

I'm still trying to figure out the whole "Enlisted-Officer" relationship. Supposedly there are policies regarding the type of associations military members can have with each other... but then again, there are policies regarding pretty much everything for military members.

Hope this wasn't too much of a jumble and you feel at least a wee bit more edjumacated in regards to the Air Force rank system. :)