Technical sergeant (E-6)
Technical sergeant, pay grade E-6: the higher of the two noncommissioned officer ranks in the US Air Force. The insignia is five stripes with a star in a circle at their middle.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Technical sergeant sits above staff sergeant (four stripes) and below master sergeant. The Airman handbook calls technical sergeants often a unit’s technical experts, and they must complete the NCO Academy before they can become master sergeants. The abbreviation is TSgt; the term of address is “Technical Sergeant”, “Tech Sergeant” or “Sergeant”.
Also searched as: E-6 air force, tech sergeant, TSgt.
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.
Technical sergeant or master sergeant?
Both have five stripes below the star. A master sergeant also has a stripe above it: when the senior NCO chevrons were redesigned in the 1990s, one stripe was taken off the bottom and put at the top, starting with master sergeant (the Air Force Historical Research Agency’s chronology). Before that, a technical sergeant had five stripes and a master sergeant six.
The E-6 rank in other services
The Army’s and the Marine Corps’ E-6 is staff sergeant, the title the Air Force gives its E-5.
More air Force ranks
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), Enlisted insignia table, E-6
- Awards and Ranks: Enlisted Ranks (image gallery), af.mil, About Us, The Book: Enlisted Ranks, U.S. Air Force (af.mil), Image caption, Technical Sergeant stripes
- 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 4, Rank Specific Responsibilities
- AFH 1, Airman, Air Force Handbook 1, Airman, 15 February 2025, Department of the Air Force, §7.6, 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
Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research