Organizations that make up the US Air Force?
美國空軍組織有哪些呢？
Overview 概述
The Air Force is a big organization with over 330,000 active duty airmen.
This does not include air force civilians, contractors, the reserve and the air national guard. Today’s goal is to show you how the Air Force is broken down and explain the people behind the organization.
Let’s go over what we will be learning today.
- Personnel
- Ranks
- Units
美國空軍事一個由330,000個空軍成員組成
不包括空軍的文職人員，承包商，後備役和國民警衛隊
今天的目標是介紹空軍的分支，和其組織人員之工作領域
我們來瞧瞧今天會了解到的內容：
- 人員
- 級別
- 單位
Personnel 人員
Q. What does active duty mean?
-
Active duty simply means being in the military full time. Technically all active duty members are on the job 24/7, but most jobs have typical job hours similar to an office job.
Q. 現役是什麼意思呢？
-
簡單來說“現役”就是在軍中全職工作。
技術上來說縣議員公需要在一週七日24小時隨傳隨到。
但許多工作基本上都是跟一班上班族一樣。
Air Force Contractors 承包商; 約聘廠商
The Air Force Contractors are similar to civilians but they are hired by a contracting company who has a contract with the air force to help fill in some roles that the air force needs to be filled.
承包商的概念類似於文職人員，但他們受僱於約聘公司需要與空軍簽約
去補足軍中無法滿足的角色
The Air Force Reserve is its own component and can be called to support the active duty air force when needed.
When not active, members of the reserve will usually support during on weekend a month and two weeks a year.
The interesting thing about the reserve is that the members will have a normal job but also have another job in the reserve.
For example, someone might be a pilot for a commercial airline but in their reserve job they could be an F-16 pilot.
空軍後備隊是其自己的組成部分，可以在需要時被招喚支持現役空軍。
當未被招喚時，空軍後備隊成員通常會在週末或是一個月工作兩週給予軍中提供工作幫助。
有趣之處在於，其成員可以擁有一份主要工作，也可以當後備隊兼職概念。
例如，某人可能是一家航空公司的飛行員，但在預備工作中，他們可能是F-16飛行員。
The Air National Guard is very similar to the Air Force Reserve except they serve the state they are in as opposed to the federal government.
空軍國民警衛隊與空軍後備隊非常相似，除了他們為所在州（而非聯邦政府）服務。
Ranks
Like most organizations, there is usually some sort of hierarchy and in the Air Force that is determined by ranks.
Within the ranks there are two distinct types of groups: enlisted and officers. Let’s go over both.
像大多數組織一樣，空軍通常也有某種等級制度，由等級決定。
在隊伍中有兩種不同類型的團體：志願役和軍官。
The enlisted force is the backbone of the Air Force and makes up the majority of the workforce. Most start out as an E-1 Airman Basic but some with college education they can start at a higher rank. After basic and specific job training most enlisted will be at least an E-2.
E-5 is when airmen get the responsibility of becoming a non-commissioned officer.
After this point they are expected to lead the junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4).
E-7 and E-8 have two types of insignia and are slightly different.
They are the same rank but the diamond in the middle means that person is the 1st Sergeant which has more responsibility than the other E-7 or E-8’s.
This is the same with E-9 but the star is reserved for the E-9 who is in command of all enlisted on the base and the E-9 to the farthest is the highest Chief Master Sergeant in the whole Air Force.
There is only one!
Source: https://hyrumheroes.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/air-force-officer.png?w=750&h=127
The officers of the air force are similar to management of corporations.
They handle a lot of administrative work and lead the enlisted.
All pilots are officers, but not all officers are pilots!
Almost every career field will have a mix of enlisted and officers.
Interestingly an O-1 always outranks an E-9 but don’t be that O-1 who tries to boss around an E-9, you will regret it.
Can you imagine someone fresh out of college trying to boss around someone else who has over 20+ years of experience?
One important note about the 5 star general is that it has not been active since 1950.
Units
The hierarchy of the Air Force.
The very top of the Air Force is led by the Secretary of the Air Force which is actually a civilian. They operate at the pentagon which is located very close to Washington D.C.
I wonder why they call it the pentagon.
Source: https://media.defense.gov/2019/Apr/16/2002117218/1280/1280/0/081014-D-FW736-001C.JPG
Next is the Headquarters of the Air Force which is led by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. This is the highest military position in the Air Force.
Major Commands
Under the HAQ are the Major Commands (MAJCOMs) which are typically commanded by 3 or 4 star generals.
These are distinguished by the type of function they serve except for a couple which are based on their geographical location.
Here they are:
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major_commands_of_the_United_States_Air_Force\
Recently the Air Force had another MAJCOM named Air Force Space Command.
This has now changed to the space force and is a component for the Department of Defense. Instead of being under the command of the Air Force it is now on an equal level to it.
Numbered Air Forces/Centers
The Numbered Air Forces (NAF) are components to MAJCOMs that deal with combat like ACC. For example the 9th Air Force is HQ’d at Shaw AFB, SC and has control of the east coast of the US.
They will supply ACC with combat units if needed.
NAF’s are typically commanded by 2 or 3 star generals.
Like NAF’s, centers are more typical in non combat MAJCOMs like AFMC.
We will explore AFMC in particular as we go farther down the Air Force pyramid.
Wings
After the NAF’s and centers we enter the next level which is the wings.
Wings are typically the size of a base and are typically commanded by 1 star generals or colonels.
AFTC includes two wings and one development complex.
Groups and Squadrons
Now let’s move onto the groups and squadrons.
Source: https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/1072134.pdf
Here we see the groups and squadrons under the 412th Test Wing.
Groups are under the wing and perform functions such as the maintenance group or the operations group.
Each group is commanded by a colonel.
Under each group is a squadron which breaks the functions down even more.
For example, under the operations group there are squadrons dedicated to each type of aircraft.
Squadrons are commanded by lieutenant colonels.
Flights
After squadrons the units are much smaller but they can be broken into flights.
Within a squadron a flight might perform a specific action.
Flight commanders are typically led by a captain.
The members of each flight might make up smaller teams to perform different tasks.
Conclusion
In this article we got to learn about the structure of the Air Force, the people in it and their ranks. The Air Force is a very large of over 330,000 active duty members and also employs the air force reserve, air national guard, air force civilians, and contractors. Also we learned a bit about the ranks in the air force and the difference between the enlisted members and officers. All these members belong to different units which we explored. Starting from the very top with the Secretary of the Air Force all the way down to the flights. We hope you got to learn more about the Air Force’s structure and the people in it. Happy landing! :)
Sources:
☝🏼https://www.afmc.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/1563085/air-force-materiel-command/
✌🏼https://aerospace.csis.org/aerospace101/air-force-organization-101/
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