Airmen
An airman is a member of the air component of a nation's armed service. In the United States Air Force, it can also refer to a specific enlisted rank. More informally, it can refer to any member of an air force, or to any pilot, aviator, or aircrewman, military or civilian, male or female. The equivalent in the British Royal Air Force and some other Commonwealth countries is aircraftman/woman.
In civilian aviation usage, the term airman is analogous to the term sailor in nautical usage. (U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard members are almost all sailors, even on naval and Coast Guard shore bases, but the subset of these who actually serve at sea in ships and boats are also "seamen". Further, people in these services who are involved in flying are also "airmen".) In the American Federal Aviation Administration usage, an airman is any holder of an airman's certificate, male or female. This certificate is issued to those who qualify for it by the Federal Aviation Administration Airmen Certification Branch.
In the U.S. Air Force, airman is a general term which can refer to any member of the United States Air Force, and also a specific enlisted rank. The rank of airman (abbreviated "Amn") is the second enlisted rank from the bottom, just above the rank of airman basic, and just below that of airman first class. Since the Air Force was established 1947, all of the various ranks of "airman" have always included females, and in this context, the word "man" means "human being" or human resource. Former U.S. Air Force ranks included airman second class and airman third class. The current E-2 paygrade rank of airman was called airman third class from 1952 to 1967.
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