On Wed, 31 Oct 2007 06:46:12 +0700, with neither quill nor qualm,
Bruce in Bangkok quickly quoth:

On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:12:09 -0600, Lew Hartswick
wrote:

Bruce in Bangkok wrote:
The rank of "Sargent" is not complete, I believe, as he should have
been a Staff, Technical or Master Sargent in 1947. A 3 striper was
called an airman 1st Class in those days.

Bruce-in-Bangkok

Bruce not quite. I was in the National Guard at the time of
the Korean war. When war broke out I was a Corporal we got
"Federalized" and at the promotion board meeting got
promoted to A1C. They had just shortly before that time
changed the rank desigantions to the Airman 3rd, 2nd, 1st
from the older ratings. This was in 1951.
Got out in Dec 53 as a s/sgt. :-)
...lew...

Whoops, I was taught that the USAF became a separate organization in
1947 and that the "Airman" ranks dated from that time. Obviously not.

My dad started out in the Army Air Corps, stuck with it through the
Army Air Force, and then into the U.S. Air Force. I don't recall the
years of each name.

His B-26 was shot down by Germans over France in '43 and he spent 10
months in a concentration camp.

He again flew (C-123s, I think) over VietNam at 1,000 feet in '66,
dropping crates of pigs and chickens so they could raise more food.
The animals were slaughtered the second they hit the ground. It took
3+ airmen to push a cow--harnessed to a parachute--out the open bomb
bay doors. Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

A rifle bullet came through the bottom of the craft and into his seat
bottom directly under his gonads, imbedding in the metal and leaving
him unharmed. Lucky Louis!

--
Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are seasoned.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes