The India Flight Ungulates

The Air Force's organizational structure is unfamiliar to most. There are enough movies and TV shows featuring Army and Marine Corps units that, while the precise composition of a squad, platoon, or company may be elusive, one understands it in a general sense. The Air Force does not have this pop-culture familiarity, so let me briefly break it down:

The smallest organizational unit in the Air Force is the Flight. This is generally 15 individuals and in the operational (read: not training) Air Force, a Flight would be run by a 2nd or 1st Lieutenant. To grossly oversimply things, Three Flights make up a Squadron, run by a Lieutenant Colonel. Three Squadrons make up a Group, run by a Colonel. Three Groups make up a Wing, run by a Colonel or Brigadier General. This, of course, is just a very general rule. It all varies on the unit, the base, and the mission.

After the Wing, one reaches the Numbered Air Forces (NAF), so named because of their breaking down areas of responsibility into numerically named zones.  NAFs are commanded by Two or Three Star Generals. The final command level is that of the Major Command (MAJCOM, "madge-comm"). MAJCOMs are organized in terms of function: Air Combat Command (ACC), Material Command (AFMC), Mobility Command (AMC), Special Operations Command (AFSOC), etc. Many bases fall into each MAJCOMs purview: Nellis AFB is part of Air Combat Command, which has its Headquarters in Langely AFB, Virginia. MAJCOMs are run by full Four Star Generals.

Also, it is common to refer to one's military rank in terms of a Letter-Number designation that allows for brevity and standardization among all military branches. E always refers to Enlisted, ranging from Airman Basic (E-1) to Chief Master Sergeant (E-9). O refers to Officers and breaks down in the Air Force as follows:

Our OTS Class, Commissioned Officer Training (COT) 09-02 (second class of 2009), was divided into Flights (15 people) and given a designation based on the NATO Phonetic Alphabet: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-Ray, Yankee, Zulu. I was in India Flight and our moniker/mascot was the "Tigers," despite my vociferous pleas that we be the Ungulates (hoofed mammals, like deer).

The Mighty African Dik-Dik. 15 pounds of killing fury and a proud Ungulate. The India Flight Ungulates would have struck fear in the hearts of all of 09-02, Alpha through Juliet.

COT is composed of medical professionals, attorneys (JAG Corps), and chaplains. The medicals break into three distinct groups: Medical Service Corps (MSC) MBAs or Masters in Finance who are the hospital administrators, Nurse Corps (NC), and Biomedical Service Corps (BSC) who are the MDs, DOs, PhDs, DPharms that are medical practitioners. India Flight had three JAGs, including myself. We also had a Clinical Psychologist, 2 Nurse Practitioners, 3 Nurses, 1 Pharmacist, 1 Chaplain, and the remainder were MSCs.

The Mighty India Tigers/Ungulates

While the bulk of my COT Class were civilians that were directly commissioned as officers due to advanced education/experience, there were a fair portion that were prior-enlisted before receiving their commission. The enlisted that are picked up for direct commissioning are truly an elite group. Generally all were either Staff Sergeants (E-5) or Technical Sergeants (E-6) before getting their commission, meaning 8-10 years experience in the Air Force.