Basic question (I think). Are the terms soldier, sailor, marine, airman considered to include the officers in the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force? I know General MacArthur referred to himself as an “old soldier”, and that type of usage seems common for the Army. Eisenhower was a soldier, and so forth. But is the parallel usage in the Air Force correct? Can you refer to Air Force brass as “airmen”?
Does this sort of thing vary depending on which branch of the service we’re talking about ?
(Note, I meant no slighting of the Coast Guard. Their usage parallels the Navy’s, doesn’t it?)
When somebody uses the idiom “Our brave soldiers, sailors, airmen & Marines”, we think of that as including all service members, officer & enlisted. Many servicemebers would think to include DOD civilians, especially those in or near a combat zone.
But if somebody said “Hey, look at that bunch of airmen over there”, I’d think enlisted only. Likewise if you substitute “sailor” in that sentence.
Both “soldier” and “Marine” seem, IMO, to be a bit more applicable to both officer & enlisted. You wouldn’t call an Infantry Captain by shouting “Hey soldier, c’mere.”, but I’d call a group of officer & enlisted standing together “a bunch of soldiers.” Ditto Marines.
Couple side issues …
I think that when the speaker is civilian, and/or the audience is primarily civilian, the fine distinctions are assumed to not apply. The audience doesn’t really understand the officer vs. enlisted distinction even if they know both words. When servicemembers are talking amongst themselves, those same terms would mean 90+% enlisted only.
In both civil & military aviation, the terms “airman” & “airmen” refers to crew of aircraft. Pilots, navigators, bombardiers, flight engineers, gunners, etc. So in the USAF & the flying part of the other services, there’s always a slight hitch when the term “airman/airmen” is used. Unless the context is expclitly about flying, the assumption is it’s the collective for USAF folks not the aircraft crew meaning.
Final point: IIRC, The terms soldier, sailor & airman/airmen are properly spelled lower-cased. The term “Marine” or “Marines” is upper-cased since it is actually the name of the service.
Useful quote: In discussing the Celestial Hiearchies of the Pseudo-Dionyszius, a medieval text dealing with the different kinds of angels, C.S. Lewis wrote: “The word angel is thus both a generic name for all the nine species contained in the three Hierarchies, and also a specific name for the lowest – as sailor in English sometimes includes all seafaring persons and is sometimes confined only to those who berth forward.”
I’m a current Naval Officer, and I agree with the above. Collectively, it applies to both, but depending upon the usage and conditions, it tends to more commonly apply to the Enlisted side of the house.