Senior airman (E-4)
Senior airman, pay grade E-4: the highest junior enlisted rank in the US Air Force. The insignia is three stripes with a star in a circle at their middle.
Easily confused with
How to read it
The last of the junior enlisted ranks, senior airman comes between airman first class (two stripes) and staff sergeant (four stripes), so a senior airman is not a noncommissioned officer. The Airman handbook describes senior airmen as skilled technicians and trainers who begin developing supervisory and leadership skills, and they must complete Airman Leadership School before they can become staff sergeants. The abbreviation is SrA, and the term of address is “Senior Airman” or “Airman”.
Also searched as: E-4 air force, SrA.
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.
Senior airman or sergeant?
From the end of 1975 to 1991 the Air Force had two E-4 ranks: senior airman, who was not an NCO, and sergeant, who was. Senior airmen and the ranks below wore a blue star in the middle of their stripes instead of a silver one, and it was hard to see. Gen. Merrill A. McPeak ended the E-4 sergeant rank in 1991, leaving E-4 to the senior airman alone, and recommended giving airmen their star back (Randy Saunders’s history of the stripes for the Air Force; Air & Space Forces Magazine).
E-4 in the Army
The Army still has two ranks at E-4, corporal and specialist; the Air Force has one.
Read next
- Next in Air Force ranksStaff sergeant (E-5)Staff sergeant, pay grade E-5: the first noncommissioned officer rank in the US Air Force. The insignia is four stripes with a star in a circle at their middle.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of TunisiaTunisia’s flag is red with a white disc in the centre holding a red crescent and a red five-pointed star. The preamble of Tunisia’s constitution speaks of martyrs whose blood painted the land in the colours of the national flag; the Tunisian press describes the crescent and star as symbols of unity, faith and freedom.
More air Force ranks
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with circles, curves and waves 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), Introduction; enlisted insignia table, E-4
- Awards and Ranks: Enlisted Ranks (image gallery), af.mil, About Us, The Book: Enlisted Ranks, U.S. Air Force (af.mil), Image caption, Senior Airman stripes (SrA)
- The Enlisted Force Structure, The Enlisted Force Structure, 4 September 2025, Department of the Air Force, published by Air University, Chapter 2, Force Structure; Chapter 3, Rank Specific Responsibilities
- AFH 1, Airman, Air Force Handbook 1, Airman, 15 February 2025, Department of the Air Force, §7.5, Junior Enlisted Tier
- Stripes: A brief history of Air Force enlisted ranks, Randy Saunders, 50th Space Wing historian, 25 October 2011, U.S. Air Force (af.mil), paragraph on 1975 and 1991
- A Study in Stripes, Walter J. Boyne, Air Force Magazine, 1 March 2008, Air & Space Forces Magazine (Air & Space Forces Association), “Making the Supergrade”
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 30, 2026. How we research
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