More than 3,400 recently promoted airmen will pin on their higher ranks in December, the Air Force said Monday.
The December pin-on lists, provided by the Air Force Personnel Center, name 701 officers and 2,705 enlisted airmen. In all, 3,406 airmen will officially be promoted this month.
The pin-on date is the date when an airman selected for promotion officially takes his next rank. It often comes months — or in some cases, more than a year — after selection for promotion.
For both officers and enlisted, airmen must wait to pin on their new ranks until other airmen already in that rank are themselves promoted or leave the service, opening up more slots. This is so the Air Force does not find itself with more airmen in a higher rank than it is legally allowed to have.
The lists of officers pinning on in December can be found here, and the enlisted list can be found here.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
