This is not an Air Force term, this one is actually a Navy term. Airmen are those people who take care of the aircraft and other aircraft related items. The aviation portion of the Navy has a very similar set up to the ship portion of the Navy. Aviation has its own set of logistic people, weapons handlers, damage control, mechanics, and so on. All of these rates are covered under the blanket of airman.

When entering the Navy if you wish to work in aviation but not sure which job you want you will enter the airman field. After boot camp you take extra training to give you an overall feeling for aircraft. After this you will head out to an aviation activity. More than likely you will end up on a carrier.

You will get to start out on the worst possible job the squadron has available. You will be able to take part in all sorts of different training and eventually will be allowed to specialize in one area. I knew several people who entered the airman field, went to a carrier, and ended up being a plane handler. They spent their entire enlistment making sure one plane didn’t run into another on the carrier deck.

For people who want to work with aircraft this is a great way to do so and to try several different jobs. The squadron will take your interests into consideration when you show up, but if they need somebody to do a certain job and you are low man on the totem pole, it’s yours.

Airmen wear green stripes on their left sleeve. E1 is an Airman recruit, E2, Airman Apprentice, and E3 Airman. All three are called airman until they make E4, but that requires striking, more on that later.