Making Rank In The Air Force--1940-1964

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m just trying to get a handle on how my father-in-law could have spent this many years, going through WWII and the Korean War (or conflict, whichever you prefer) without at least getting to the rank of Master Sergeant. I think that’s an E-x. The guy went through all of that, and could only retire as a Technical Sergeant.

I am trying to come up with some things to say biography-wise, and he is no help since he is completely eaten up with Alzheimer’s. But I am thinking that in that period, if someone stayed out of trouble and did their job (which he did, as best my info), they could have at LEAST made Master Sergeant.

What’s your input on this, as to how someone could be in the Air Force for this length of time and not get any higher in rank?

I am not trying to be snarky. I have not said “an acquaintance” or anything like that. I just want opinions is all.

At this point, I’d prefer to not goi into my sudden interest into his long-ago military career. But if it is important to you in making an opinion, I will elaborate.

(and yes, I know, that at the beginning, he was in the ARMY. The Air Force didn’t come into being until…what, 1947? 1948?? I won a bet, a big bet, once, with my wife who insisted that her dad was never in the Army, ha, ha)

<<Edited to add: Yes, I know how hard it is to make rank…there are all kinds of exams, huge amounts of study, squeaky-clean performance reports, etc. I am also NOT inferring that it was simply a case of one’s breath being able to fog a mirror in WWII to get higher NCO rank. I am just asking for some perspective as to this in that era>>

2

Well… I’m not sure exactly how it worked, but I do know that in the late 1960s, it was possible to enlist and go from E-1 to E-5 within 4 years; my Dad did. According to him, he’d already taken the Tech Sgt. (E-6) test, but was just waiting on the time-in-grade part before he would get promoted, and then promptly decided not to re-enlist.

One more thing to consider is that in today’s military, it’s an “up-or-out” mentality. Basically, you get promoted within some certain period of time, or you are asked to retire/leave. I don’t think this was the case until fairly recently; certainly post 1964 anyway.

It’s entirely possible that your father-in-law was a bang-up mechanic or something like that, but chose not to get beyond technical sergeant because he liked turning his wrench instead of supervising people. Nowadays, that wouldn’t fly, but back then, things were different.

3

Does this apply to enlisted ranks? I know it applies to officer ranks.

4

It does surprise me. I was in the Army Air Corps at the tail end of WWII, and in two years made buck sergeant. Promotions came pretty quickly.

I can think of one explanation you may not like, but I knew a lot of men, especially the career guys in the Regular Army, who did their job very well. Often, however, they would get stinkin’ drunk, empty a bar or engage in a fight with MPs or otherwise screw up. If it came to a court martial, they might get busted to Private again.

Within a year or two, they’d work their way back to their former rank. In some cases, this pattern repeated itself several times. I heard officers say many times, “He’s really a good man when he’s not drunk.”

I hope it’s not true, but your FIL might just have been in the process of climbing back when he got out.

It’s also quite possible, as bump noted, that he did not want to go up the next step to Master Sergeant, as that was almost always an administrative job, and he might not have wanted it.

5

Retiring as an E-6 was not uncommon in any of the services in that era and before. It was probably due to poor management practices, but I can’t give you any specifics. It depended mostly on your speciality (MOS, Rating, etc.). If you found yourself in a top heavy speciality it could literally have been a “wait until someone dies, or retires”, situation. OTOH if you got into a hot new speciality you could rise very rapidly. I can remember the Navy having a few “slick armed” E-6’s (a person made E-6 before sewing on a 4 year hashmark). I don’t recall exactly when the “up or out” regs. were extended to enlisted ranks, but I think it was in the 70’s. Then, of course, it was much easier back then to get “busted” to a lower rank for some pretty petty infraction, something that would only get you a minor mention in your fitness report today.

I served from '56 to '79.

6

My Dad had a similar experience around 1951. He made E-5 very fast as an Air force Weatherman. It only took 4 years. I think it was a combination of the Air force being short on NCOs and especially short on his rating. If he had stayed in, he would have been an E6 shortly.

For a 24 year military career in the time frame described in the Air Force, Tech Sergeant is a very low rank. That is only E6.

I would hazard a guess that he had some strong negatives on his record that prevented promotion. In the Navy, promotions to E7 and above (Chiefs) were handled differently that E2-E6. He may have been demoted once or twice and so just was found unfit for E7 but nothing bad enough to be forced out.

Jim

7

How difficult would it be to find a factual answer to this question? (regarding the OP’s FIL, not necessarily the Air Force in general during that time frame) Are service records made public? Would it possible to go look into a file and see whether he was repeatedly demoted and re-promoted, as KlondikeGeoff suggested, or had some other performance-related factors that slowed his career track?

8

When did the US military go from a 7 step enlisted rank structure to a 9 step (adding E-8 and E-9 grades)?

I don’t know what the USAF rank structure was before the change, but Technical Sergeant may have been one step off the top at the time, which wouldn’t be too bad in less rank-inflated military of the time.

9

The rank of Senior Master Sergeant was authorized by the Military Pay Act of 1958. However, I believe the E8 & E9 pay grades existed before 1958 and this cleaned things up into the current system.

Jim

10

I do not believe that the FIL necessarily had a poor record, or poor performance. As I stated previously, it was difficult to reach the higher pay grades in some specialities due to them being top heavy. Some of this had to do w/ RIF’s after WWII and Korea and some was poor personel management by the services. I knew many guys who retired at E-6 and while I can’t give you a cite, I would guess that between 20-30% of enlisted retired below E-7. Remember that lteracy and reading comprehension were still quite a problem in those days, HS diplomas were not required for enlistment most of the time and some guys could do the job, but they just couldn’t take a written test.
The original intent in creating the ranks of E-8/E-9 was to eliminate part, or all, of the warrant officer program. There was an outcry against eliminating, or even reducing warrants, so they went ahead w/ E-8/E-9’s and kept the warrant program.
There was a big upheaval in military personnel management shortly after WWII that took several years to shake out, including the new UCMJ (1951) which, in itself, spurred other changes. During that era there was nothing derogatory or shameful about retiring as an E-6 and there were even some who retired at E-5 and below, although many of them may have had some conduct problems.

11

Well, thanks for the opinions and insight. You did bring up some things I hadn’t thought about. Certainly, if he’d gotten busted a time or two I realize that it is something that he would not have made a practice of tellling everyone about.

I’m thinking that it was maybe the thing about the Air Force being top-heavy with folk in his specialty and/or the literacy thing (he did graduate from high school, but was barely literate and probably would have had a great deal of trouble with any exams), but in the end, who really knows?

Great food for thought, and I do thank you all most sincerely.