Well, yes. Yes, you do. (Rant alert!) From the Air Force Association’s Daily Report:
Brave New World: The Air Force's fledgling cyber force has developed a roadmap that proposes establishing new career fields for officer and enlisted airmen that would affect some 30,000 active and 2,000 reserve personnel currently working in the cyber realm. The head of Cyber Command (Provisional), Maj. Gen. William Lord, said the new roadmap "outlines our efforts to establish cyberspace operators, specialists, analysts, and developers who grow from a basic understanding of cyberspace doctrine to experts in their respective fields." Per the plan, operators would comprise officer and enlisted airmen who would plan, direct, and execute offensive and defensive actions; specialists would be enlisted communications and information cyber technicians; analysts would include both officer and enlisted intelligence personnel with expertise in cyberspace operations; and developers would also comprise both officers and enlisted members with advanced skills in designing and modifying software and hardware. AFCYBER's initial work focuses on operators and specialists, including two new officer air force specialty codes and 15 new enlisted AFSCs. Work is still ongoing to outline career paths for analysts and developers, expected later this year, and to define professional development for the service's civilian cyber force. "We have a lot of work ahead of us still, but we know the direction we're headed," said Maj. Timothy Franz, AFCYBER chief of force development. In the works, too, is a proposed cyberspace operator badge. Officials last month noted that the command is on track to stand up this fall, while still looking for a permanent location for the headquarters. (For details on the specific AFSC's being cut and created, see AFCYBER report by Karen Petitt.)
There have been more than a few changes in the Air Force since I traded in my gub’mint-issued Blue Suit for Brooks Bros. back in 1985. Some time a while back (five years? ten years?) USAF overhauled all of its Air Force Specialty Codes (AFSCs), changing the entire system into something unrecognizable to folks who’d served previously. As an example, my AFSC when I retired was 30372… which meant I was in the Communications-Electronics field (first two digits: 30), radar (third digit: 3), technician level (fourth digit: 7), aircraft control and warning (AC&W) radar (last digit: 2). This may sound and look complicated, but it’s not. The current structure for AFSCs looks like this:
EXAMPLE: 1N37 - Operations, Intelligence, Cryptologic Linguist, Craftsman
The whole explanation of AFSC numbering structure is here, if you’re curious and/or need a non-addictive sleep aid. But I digress... and mightily, at that. My whole point was going to be this: were I still on active duty I’d be qualified (by virtue of my job) to wear that spiffy new badge that accompanies this lil blurb.
Which, of course, brings up yet another change USAF has made since I retired… everyone is now authorized to wear steenkin’ badges of some sort. Back in my day only pilots, navigators, and aircrew wore badges, specifically “wings.” There were other badges, too, but they were limited to health care professionals (doctors, nurses), chaplains, lawyers, missileers (the famous “pocket rocket”), and skycops (who wore real badges, as known and understood by the civilian population). Nowadays it takes an entire page in the Air Force Almanac (BIG-ass pdf alert: jump to page 71 if ya go) to display all the various badges USAF has authorized for wear. I counted 32, and that’s not counting the various flavors of “wings” currently authorized. When you add in all the flippin’ ribbons and medals that are authorized these days (and handed out like candy, I might add) you get airmen who have more adornments on their uniforms than an Eagle Scout wearing all his merit badges.
That ain’t right. “Whatever Happened to the Plain Blue Suit?”, indeed.
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