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Captain

Air Force Major

O-4 Field Officer, U.S. Air Force
(Next) O-5 Lt CoAir Force Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant Colonel

Air Force Ranks » Major RankMaj PayMaj Rank History

How to get promoted to Major History of the Air Force Major Rank

A Major is a Field Officer in the United States Air Force at DoD paygrade O-4.

For a long time, there were no ranks between captain and colonel. Early American military leaders recognized the need for a rank in between because the size of the military was growing. It was too much work for a captain to manage. Yet, a colonel had more important issues to attend to. In order to better organize military leadership, two new ranks emerged: major and lieutenant colonel. To this day, majors continue to fulfill their role as liaison officers between young lieutenants and upper leadership.

Want to learn more? Read about the Air Force's Major rank on Military-Ranks.org.


History of the Air Force

The Air Force was founded in 1947, just after WWII. It was created using most of the existing Army Air Corps that had just made significant contributions to the war effort. The Air Force is the most technological of the branches, as well as the "most business-like" (least strict). There is a general concensus in the military that quality of life for servicemembers in the Air Force is highest. Just as the Army fights land wars and the Navy fights sea wars, the Air Force was originally envisioned to fight air wars. While wars in the past 70 years couldn't be fought with aircraft alone, the age of Drones and Artificial Intelligence may cause a paradigm shift where air-only wars are possible.