Officer Insignias

• Insignias for Air Force commissioned officers were directly brought over from the U.S. Army and, along with its ranks, have remained almost unchanged ever since. This includes the use of silver bars in higher ranks such as first lieutenant and captain compared to single gold bar for the rank of second lieutenant, oak leaves for the ranks of major and lieutenant colonel, an eagle insignia for colonel, and insignias including one to four stars for brigadier general, major general lieutenant general and general, respectively, according to the Department of Defense. In contrast to the other military branches such as the Army and the Navy, the Air Force does not have warrant officers, and thus has no insignias to represent those ranks.
  
  

Controversy

• Officer insignias were left unchanged except for a couple of years in the early 1990s, when Gen. Merrill A. McPeak, then Air Force chief of staff, did away with the standard insignias on the shoulders of the uniform and introduced in 1991 the use of silver braids on the lower sleeves to display rank, among other changes. This last change, in particular, rattled critics, who compared the redesigned uniform's appearance to that of airline pilots. Only three years later, McPeak's successor, Gen. Ronald R. Fogelman, gave orders to return to the old rank insignia, according to Air Force Magazine.
  
  

Enlisted Rank Beginnings

• Air Force insignia for enlisted men went through many more changes throughout the years. At the time of the transition from the U.S. Army, enlisted rank chevrons or sleeve badges retained the Army look, according to the Air Force Historical Research Agency. The ranks, from lowest to highest, were: private, no stripes; private first class, one inverted "V" upward stripe; corporal or technician fifth grade, two upward stripes with an optional letter "T" under the stripes; sergeant or technician fourth grade, three upward stripes with an optional letter "T" under the stripes; staff sergeant or technician third grade, three upward stripes with a "rocker" stripe underneath and an optional "T" between the stripes and the rocker; technical sergeant, adding a second rocker stripe; master sergeant, three upward and three rocker stripes; and first sergeant, same as before, but with a diamond between the upward and rocker stripes. Both master sergeants and first sergeants are technicians first grade.
  
  

First Revisions

• A 1948 meeting at the Pentagon chaired by Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg revealed that new designs were sampled at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. The subsequent poll found a 55 percent support of the new designs that featured stripes slanting upward, suggesting wings, and a pierced star in the center. The Air Force further assumed its unique identity in 1950, when Vandenberg directed all enlisted Air Force personnel to be called "airmen" instead of their former moniker, "soldiers."
  
  

Rank Name Changes

• Later on in 1952, the names of the ranks were changed to basic Airman, airman third class, airman second class, airman first class, staff sergeant, technical sergeant and master sergeant. Insignias went from no stripes in basic airman rank to six angled stripes at master sergeant rank. Plans also began in 1952 to change the insignia in the lower ranks to horizontal stripes to distinguish them from higher ranks, but by 1956 such plans were scrapped. However, another alteration did come to pass in 1954, namely the addition of a diamond above the "V" in the grade chevron of first sergeants.
  
  

New Ranks Bring Problems

• The Military Pay Act of 1958 introduced two additional pay grades above master sergeant, yet this posed problems. Much debate followed, and officials settled on the rank names of senior master sergeant and chief master sergeant, by rank order, yet another problem followed concerning the insignia design. The Air Force brass finally decided to add one or two stripes pointing in the opposite direction, leaving a field of blue between the lower master sergeant insignia and the stripes of the new grades.
  
  

More Recent Alterations

• During the following years, the most noteworthy additions and alterations to existing insignia included the addition of a still higher rank, chief master sergeant of the Air Force in 1967. Necessitating its own distinctive insignia, officials settled upon adding a star encircled by a wreath on the interior field of the stripes. Other alterations made in later years were relatively minor, including the addition of diamond shapes in certain ranks, but the overall structure of the insignias remained unchanged.