September Promotions

I did the graphic here for publishing with promotions. I first did this at Dover Air Force Base to go with the promotions lists we did each month. I redid it at Misawa Air Base when they suggested we publish promotion names. If you look at the bottom of the list, there is my name published for my promotion. When printed on paper or in color, the chevrons are in different shades of gray, the faintest at the back, the darkest at the front. The ranks are, back to front: Airman (E-2), Airman 1st Class (E-3), Senior Airman (E-4), Staff Sergeant (E-5), Technical Sergeant (E-6), Master Sergeant (E-7), Senior Master Sergeant (E-8), Chief Master Sergeant (E-9). You will notice there is no rank insignia for E-1. An E-1 is called an Airman Basic. We all start out as Airman Basic in Basic Military Training. Some enlisted members will receive a promotion directly out of basic training due to specifications in their contracts. Others will remain Airman Basic for a short time. I don't believe anybody remains an Airman Basic for longer than six months. It would not be practical for everybody in basic training to sew some sort of stripe on to represent E-1 and then have to replace it in as soon as six weeks or as late as six months. Paying for new stripes and paying to have them sewn on is expensive. Each service has its own name for the different ranks, and different insignias and such. But each enlisted service member has a particular grade, E-1 through E-9, and their pay is determined by that grade, regardless of the insignia their service assigns to them or what name they are called.

Between service members of different services, there is often confusion as to who is the highest rank. It seems very few young troops are familiar with the rank insignia and the proper term of address for members of other services. This is important in order to determine who is in charge between mixed service members. It is also important in determining what level of respect you should pay to a member of another service. If you were an Air Force E-2 and you were talking to a Marine E-7, you wouldn't want to start off with "Hey dude..." For Air Force people, you can count the stripes on their chevron and also count the star. That is a sure-fire formula to determine their pay grade. If they don't have any stripes or stars, they're a candidate to empty the trash.

Those promoted in this month include: Veronica A. Duflo, Tracey E. Moore, Joseph D. Wright Jr., Stanley W Chisolm, Steven L. Crabtree, Burley R. Johnson, Thurman F. Jones, Christopher W Smith, Michael A. Wirth, Jason J. Benavides, Jennifer L. Brooks, Matthew J. Burns, Ricardo Casas Jr., Lee A. Galbraith, Lori L. Holly, Kalvin R. Jackson, Harold E. Llewellyn, Kern L. Marroquin, Chad A. Ohelo, Jerry J. Simmons, Arfe R. Arnold, Kara M. Crowther, Michael B. Erb, Chole N. Floyd, Shendrisha K. Hancock, Artemio T. Idelbong, Abraham Jackson, Heather M. Jones, Wayne C. Levy, C. Todd Lopez, Jacob H. Norsten, Ryan D. Reichert, Gregory Rivera, Chad D. Ryan, Bougain J. Sistak, Bryan M. Weaver, Michael P Woroniecki, Matthew A. Wuelfing, Robert Harrison II, David C. Janelas, Trista A. Bua, Kiley A. Carsten, Kenneth C. Gant, Tiffani D. Jordan, Michael A. Manalo, Barry A. McLendon and Craig D. Trusty CTLOPEZ (Publication date, September 22, 2000)