Master sergeant (E-7)
Master sergeant, pay grade E-7: the first senior noncommissioned officer rank in the US Air Force. The insignia is five stripes below a star in a circle and one stripe above it.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Master sergeant sits above technical sergeant (five stripes, none above the star) and below senior master sergeant (two above). It is the first of the three senior NCO ranks. The Airman handbook describes master sergeants as technical experts moving from first-line supervisors to leaders of operational competence, and the Enlisted Force Structure has them overseeing mission execution and professional development within the unit. The abbreviation is MSgt, and the term of address is “Master Sergeant” or “Sergeant”.
Also searched as: E-7 air force, MSgt.
Ranks and insignia as the Department of the Air Force’s own instructions and pages set them out. Pay grades are the Department of Defense’s.
The first sergeant’s diamond
A diamond in the middle of the chevron marks a first sergeant. The Air Force’s rank graphics show it on master sergeant, senior master sergeant and chief master sergeant stripes, and the Department of War’s tables list a first sergeant at E-7 beside master sergeant. First sergeant is a duty: the Enlisted Force Structure lists it among developmental duties and makes first sergeants responsible for readiness, health, morale, welfare and quality of life in their organizations. Gen. Nathan F. Twining approved the diamond in September 1954.
Six stripes until the 1990s
Master sergeant had six stripes below the star until Gen. McPeak’s changes moved one of them to the top. The new stripes became mandatory wear in October 1997 (the Air Force Historical Research Agency’s chronology; Randy Saunders’s history for the Air Force).
Master sergeant in the Army is E-8
The Army’s E-7 is sergeant first class; its master sergeant is E-8.
More air Force ranks
Browse symbols drawn with circles, curves and waves, lines or stars.
Sources
- U.S. Military Rank Insignia, Resources: U.S. Military Rank Insignia (enlisted and officer insignia by paygrade), U.S. Department of Defense (defense.gov), Enlisted insignia table, E-7 and E-8
- Awards and Ranks: Enlisted Ranks (image gallery), af.mil, About Us, The Book: Enlisted Ranks, U.S. Air Force (af.mil), Image captions, CMSgt, SMSgt and MSgt
- The Enlisted Force Structure, The Enlisted Force Structure, 4 September 2025, Department of the Air Force, published by Air University, Chapter 2, Force Structure and Developmental Duties; Chapter 5
- AFH 1, Airman, Air Force Handbook 1, Airman, 15 February 2025, Department of the Air Force, §7.7, Senior Noncommissioned Officer Tier
- A Chronology of the Enlisted Rank Chevron of the United States Air Force, TSgt Barry L. Spink, Air Force Historical Research Agency, 19 February 1992, Department of the Air Force Historical Support Division, March 1948 and October 1991 entries
- Stripes: A brief history of Air Force enlisted ranks, Randy Saunders, 50th Space Wing historian, 25 October 2011, U.S. Air Force (af.mil), closing paragraphs
- A Study in Stripes, Walter J. Boyne, Air Force Magazine, 1 March 2008, Air & Space Forces Magazine (Air & Space Forces Association), “Up and Down”
Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research