United States Air Force officer rank insignia The United States Air Force officer rank insignia in use today . Current insignia . This chart displays the United States Air Force officer rank insignia . The ranks are divided into three sections : company grade , field grade , and general officers . Company grade officers are those officers of grades O - 1 to O - 3 . Field grade officers are those of grades O - 4 to O - 6 . General officers are those of O - 7 and above . Currently , promotion from Second Lieutenant to First Lieutenant is virtually guaranteed after two years of satisfactory service . Promotion to Captain and above is through a board process . An officer ' s record is reviewed by a selection board at the Air Force Personnel Center at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio , Texas . This process occurs approximately between the nine - and eleven - year mark , where a certain percentage of Captains will be selected for Major . This process will repeat at the 13 - 16 year mark for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and then around the twenty - year mark for promotion to Colonel . The rank of General of the Air Force is strictly honorary or awarded during a time of war , which has happened only once in history , to United States Air Force General Henry H . Arnold . Wearing of insignia . On the Air Force Mess Dress uniform , officer rank insignia are embroidered in silver or gold thread on detachable shoulder boards which are attached to the mess dress jacket . No rank insignia are worn on the mess dress shirt . On the service dress uniform , metal rank insignia pins are worn on the epaulets of the Air Force Blue service dress jacket . Rank insignia are embroidered in silver or gold thread on Air Force Blue epaulets which slide onto the epaulet loops on the light blue shirt . The slide - on epaulet for field - grade officers ' shirts has a single line of silver piping toward the outer edge of the epaulet . The slide - on epaulet for general officers ' shirts has silver piping on both the inner and outer edges of the epaulets . These slide - on epaulets are also worn on the cardigan and pull - over uniform sweaters . The Flight Dress Uniform ( FDU ) features subdued cloth rank insignia sewn onto the shoulders . The Air Force flight cap is worn with the FDU and service dress uniforms . The flight cap is solid Air Force Blue for enlisted personnel , but features a solid silver edge braid for general officers , and an edge braid in a silver and blue diamond pattern for other officers . Officers wear a bright metal rank insignia toward the front edge of the ( wearer ' s ) left side of the flight cap . The Battle Dress Uniform ( BDU ) and Airman Battle Uniform ( ABU ) feature subdued cloth rank insignia worn on both sides of the collar . The BDU cap features a rank insignia centered on the front of the cap , above the bill , which may be a subdued cloth insignia or subdued metal pin - on insignia , MAJCOM commanders may authorize wear of the bright non - subdued grade insignia by officers on BDU caps while in garrison . Air Force officers authorized to wear beret s ( including Security Forces , Special Tactics Officers , and Combat Weather ) wear a bright metal rank insignia on the beret ' s flash . Subdued rank insignia , as worn on the BDU and FDU , are designed to reduce visibility of the wearer under field conditions . The subdued versions of silver insignia are embroidered in dark blue thread on an olive - drab backing . The subdued versions of gold insignia are embroidered in brown thread on an olive - drab backing . On desert uniforms , tan backing replaces the olive - drab backing ( with black thread in place of dark blue thread ) . Subdued metal insignia are black and brown in place of silver and gold , respectively . General officers wear black stars as subdued rank . Agents of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations normally do not wear uniforms while on duty , but even when in uniform they often do not wear rank insignia . However , when attending Professional Military Education courses , they do wear rank insignia . Chaplains wear normal rank insignia reflecting their military rank , except that chaplains may wear a chaplain badge in lieu of rank insignia on the BDU cap . Past insignia . The current Air Force officer rank names and insignia were borrowed from the Army upon the establishment of the Air Force as a separate service in 1947 . This explains why the Air Force has brigadier generals but no brigade s . The insignia have been essentially unchanged since then , except for a brief period during the 1990s . The Army origin explains why the color silver outranks gold in Air Force officer insignia . In the early 19th century , Army infantry colonels wore gold eagles , while all other Army colonels wore silver eagles . When the Army later decided to adopt a single color of eagles for all colonels , that single color was silver , apparently because more silver eagles than gold eagles were already in use . Lieutenant colonels received silver oak leaves next , to match the silver eagles of full colonels . Majors were then given gold oak leaves to distinguish them from lieutenant colonels . Once the precedent of silver outranking gold was set , it was followed when gold bars were later created for second lieutenants , who had no grade - specific insignia until the early 20th century . During the 1990s , Air Force Chief of Staff General Merrill A . McPeak redesigned the service dress uniform to give it a more distinctive look . His redesign replaced the metal rank insignia for officers with silver braid on the sleeves , similar to the Navy ' s officer rank insignia and that of the United States Coast Guard . This was similar to the rank insignia of the British Royal Air Force , the Canadian Forces and other Commonwealth air forces . The " McPeak uniform " was very unpopular , drawing comparisons to the jackets worn by airline pilots , and the traditional rank insignia were reinstated within a week of General McPeak ' s retirement in 1994 .