Senior master sergeant (E-8)
Senior master sergeant, pay grade E-8: the second senior noncommissioned officer rank in the US Air Force. The insignia is five stripes below a star in a circle and two stripes above it.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Senior master sergeant sits above master sergeant (one stripe above the star) and below chief master sergeant (three). The Airman handbook describes senior master sergeants as experienced operational leaders, and the Enlisted Force Structure has them leading larger teams and giving guidance on enlisted force development and command decisions. The abbreviation is SMSgt, and the term of address is “Senior Master Sergeant”, “Senior” or “Sergeant”.
Also searched as: E-8 air force, senior master, SMSgt.
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.
With a diamond: first sergeant
A senior master sergeant serving as a first sergeant has a diamond in the middle of the chevron (the Air Force’s rank graphics). In the Department of War’s words, whether an E-8 is a senior master sergeant or a first sergeant in the Air Force depends on the person’s job.
Where E-8 came from
The Military Pay Act of 1958 added pay grades E-8 and E-9 for all the services. The Air Force named them senior master sergeant and chief master sergeant and gave them one and two stripes on top of the master sergeant’s chevron. The 1990s redesign moved a stripe from the bottom of each senior NCO chevron to the top, giving senior master sergeant today’s two up and five down.
E-8 in the Army
The Army’s E-8 ranks are master sergeant and first sergeant.
More air Force ranks
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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-8; E-8 paragraph
- Awards and Ranks: Enlisted Ranks (image gallery), af.mil, About Us, The Book: Enlisted Ranks, U.S. Air Force (af.mil), Image captions, Senior Master Sergeant (SMSgt)
- 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 5, Rank Specific Responsibilities
- AFH 1, Airman, Air Force Handbook 1, Airman, 15 February 2025, Department of the Air Force, §7.7, Senior Noncommissioned Officer 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 the Military Pay Act of 1958
- 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, October 1991 entry
Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research