3C2X1 Tech Control - Enlisted AFSCs

Enlisted AFSCs

The enlisted AFSC consists of five alphanumeric characters:

• Career group (Numerical)
  1. Operations
  2. Logistics
  3. Support
  4. Medical
  5. Professional
  6. Acquisition
  7. Special Investigations
  8. Special Duty Identifiers, typically used for Airmen chosen for specialized jobs
  9. Reporting Identifiers, typically used for Airmen in transitive status: trainees, awaiting retraining, prisoner, etc.
• Career field (Alpha, different for each)
• Career field subdivision (Numerical, different for each)
• Skill level
  • 1 – Helper (recruits or retrainees in technical school)
  • 3 – Apprentice (technical school graduates applying and expanding their job skills)
  • 5 – Journeyman (experienced Airmen functioning as front-line technicians and initial trainers)
  • 7 – Craftsman (Airmen with many years of experience in the specialty, responsible for supervision and training)
  • 9 – Superintendent (Airmen in the grade of Senior Master Sergeant and above, with at least 14 years of experience, responsible for broad supervision)
  • 0 – Chief Enlisted Manager (CEM) (Airmen in the grade of Chief Master Sergeant responsible for policy and direction on a broad scale, from the individual squadron to HQ USAF levels)
• Specific AFSC (Numeric, specialty within career field subdivision)

For example, in the AFSC 1N371:

• The career group is 1 (Operations)
• The career field is N (Intelligence)
• The career field subdivision is 3 (Cryptologic Linguist)
• The skill level is 7 (Craftsman)
• The specific AFSC is 1 (Crypto-Linguist Specializing in a Germanic Language)

For some specialties, an alpha prefix is used to denote a special ability, skill, qualification or system designator not restricted to a single AFSC (such as "X" for an aircrew position). Additionally, an alpha suffix (a “shredout”) denotes positions associated with particular equipment or functions within a single specialty (an Afrikaans specialist in the Germanic linguist field would have an "E" shredout). Using the above example, the AFSC X1N371E would refer to a Germanic Cryptologic Linguist who is aircrew qualified and specializes in Afrikaans.

Here is an extended listing of AFSC groups. Most categories have numerous actual AFSCs in them.