Please tell me you signed up for the A1C package. I’d hate to know that you went in slick when your peers who signed for 6 years get a pair of stripes.
You bet your sweet ass I did! Picked the hardest damn job I could get, too.
I’m just so proud of myself today. My very first thread about me. And I’m in a great mood today.
All in all, life couldn’t be better! 
…not to interrupt your congratsfest, but what are you two talking about? From the gist of the reply, I take it to be a good thing, but I have no idea what an A1C is!!!
A1C is Airman, First Class. It’s an E-3 rank. Two stripes, and all.
So, doors, what’s your afsc?
Likely it’s similar to the navy program I went in under.
When you enlist in the military you have a total obligation for six years. For most folks that isn’t all spent on active duty. Special programs require six full years of active duty. In exchange the recruit usually gets extra training plus automatic advancement. For me I got E-3 pay from the day I went in and was advancd to E-4 when I gradudated from A school about seven months later. The training was good as I spent over a year and a half in school before touching an airplane.
For those who are still confused, the “E” stands for “Enlisted” as in not an officer. The rank scale starts from E-1 ,which is a rank with no insignia, in the AF that would be Airman Basic, meaning “new recruit in boot camp” and goes up to (if I recall the grade correctly) E-10. The highest enlisted rank is Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, and there is only ever one of them.
Officers, of course, start at O-1, which is 2nd Lieutennant, and go up to O-10, which is General and has 4 stars for rank insignia. There are no 5-star Generals anymore.
So ends today’s lesson.