Armed forces ranks
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Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1998 12:27:27 EDT
From: Croaker Jr

Can anyone give a rundown of the American Naval and Air Force military rank structures? I'm fairly familiar with the Army & Marine Corps ranks, but a list of those might be useful as well. I'd like to compile the lists for easy reference on my website by players interested in military characters.


Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1998 13:09:13 -0400
From: "Duran Goodyear"

The US Air Force is (to my knowledge) Identical to the US Army, simply cause of the fact that the US AF was originally part of the US Army. (US Army Air Corp)

The Navy, is very different, cause, well, it's the navy… And they have a different methodology, and philosophy of command.

The Officer Ranks for the navy are…

Ensign

Lt.. jr.

Lt.

Lt. Commander

Commander

Captain

Commodore

Vice Admiral

Rear Admiral

Admiral

Fleet Admiral.


Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1998 13:56:40 -0700
From: Nezach
The USAF officer ranks retain the same names as their Army and Marine counterparts. The Enlisted rank names, however, are different.

Airman Basic

Airman

Airman First Class

Senior Airman

Staff Sergeant

Technical Sergeant

Master Sergeant

Senior Master Sergeant

Chief Master Sergeant


Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1998 17:17:37 -0400
From: Ngo Vinh-Hoi
The current US Navy ranks (for officers) are as follows:

Ensign

Lieutenant J.G. (Junior Grade)

Lieutenant

Lieutenant Commander

Commander

Captain

Rear Admiral, Lower Half

Rear Admiral, Upper Half

Vice Admiral

Admiral

The ranks of Commodore and Admiral of the Fleet (5 Star Admiral)are no longer in uselikewise with General of the Army, which has been out of use since WWII or sometime in the '50s IIRC. As for enlisted & warrant officer ranks in the USN, you're out of luck asking mein addition to the usual Seaman & Petty Officer ranks, there are all sorts of specialist titles, like Machinist's Mate, Photographer's Mate, Corpsman (Medic), etc.


Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 08:53:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jose Burgos

I was active duty in the AF five years (jet engines mechanic, in case anyone has questions for their campaigns), and as far as I can remember (back when I left in 1992) the rank structure was as follows

("E" stands for Enlisted):

E-1 basic Airman (also called "slick sleave" due to having no rank displayed on their sleeves).

E-2 Airman second class (one bar insignia)

E-3 Airman 1st class (two bars)

E-4 Senior Airman (3 bars)

E-5 Sergeant (3 bars, white star, aka "buck" sergeant)

E-6 Staff Sergeant (4 bars, white star)

E-7 Tech Sergeant (5 bars, white star)

E-8 Master Sergeant

E-9 Senior (?) MS.

That's as far as I can remember, the command structure may have changed in the last 5 years. However, this should be fairly accurate.


Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 18:22:49 -0700
From: Nezach

Jose Burgos wrote:

("E" stands for Enlisted):

E-1 basic Airman (also called "slick sleave" due to having no rank
displayed on their sleeves).

E-2 Airman second class (one bar insignia)

This must have changed right when I got in. A2C was simply "Airman".
I guess that was more "PC", cant go around calling someone second class now can we :)

E-3 Airman 1st class (two bars)

E-4 Senior Airman (3 bars)

E-5 Sergeant (3 bars, white star, aka "buck" sergeant)

This got changed in '94-95. They stopped promoting to buck sergeant.
If you passed the test you were promoted straight to Staff Sgt. Buck sergeants were actually E-4s as well, they got paid just the same as Senior Airmen. The difference was they were NCO's. Before this all non NCO enlisted had subdued stars on their chevrons. Now everybody gets white stars.

E-6 Staff Sergeant (4 bars, white star)

E-7 Tech Sergeant (5 bars, white star)

E-8 Master Sergeant

E-9 Senior (?) MS.

Thats as far as I can remember, the command structure may have changed
in the last 5 years. However, this should be fairly accurate.

They didn't have Chief Master Sergeants in '92? Honest question, I was under the impression that that rank had been around a while.


Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 08:03:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jose Burgos

Buck sergeants were actually E-4s as well,

Yes, I remember this having changed after I left (I was the last of the "buck" sergeants then).

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