For those of you who may not be familiar with the history and role of the United States Air Force (USAF).image3 The USAF is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947.
It is the most recent branch of the U.S. military to be formed, and is the largest and one of the world’s most technologically advanced air forces. The USAF articulates its core functions as Nuclear Deterrence Operations, Special Operations, Air Superiority, Global Integrated ISR, Space Superiority, Command and Control, Cyberspace Superiority, Personnel Recovery, Global Precision Attack, Building Partnerships, Rapid Global Mobility and Agile Combat Support.
The Air Force is a military service within the Department of the Air Force, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, who is appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.
The highest-ranking military officer in the Department of the Air Force is the Chief of Staff of the Air Force who exercises supervision over Air Force units, and serves as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Air Force combat forces are assigned, as directed by the Secretary of Defense, to the Combatant Commanders, and neither the Secretary of the Air Force nor the Chief of Staff has operational command authority over them. With all of this combat and warfighter support capability spread around the world you can be that the air force coins are amongst the most diverse out there.
There are many air forces which proudly serve their nations. Over the years we’ve been proud to work with many different nations air forces to mint their custom challenge coins. As a subset of the world wide air forces sites. Each national air force has been steadily integrating the tradition of ‘coin checks’ for air force coins. That’s right, air force Challenge Coins are now a worldwide sensation.
We’ve seen some super creative projects come from our USAF clients. The EOD and Ammo guys are notorious for pushing the creative envelope when it comes to commissioning high quality, unique, and occasionally profane custom military coin projects. It doesn’t matter what your job is in the USAF, we’re able to help you achieve that ‘wow’ factor you’re looking for with your project. Check out some of our custom medallion and air force challenge coin projects in our photo gallery If you’d like assistance with getting an air force coin made for your unit or command. You can get in contact with us, or fill out our free quote and artwork request form here and we’ll start the process towards getting your quality custom challenge coin made for you.
The organizational and unit command structure of US Air Force is broken down into many different levels and tiers.An Air Force Squadron typically consists of two or more flights
These flights combine to form a squadron. The squadron is the lowest level of command with a headquarters element (example, a Squadron Commander, or Squadron First Sergeant). In the Air Force, a squadron commander is generally in the rank of Lt Col (O-5), although smaller squadrons may be commanded by majors, captains, and sometimes even lieutenants.
Squadrons are usually identified both numerically, and by function. An example would be the 49th Security Forces Squadron, or the 501st Maintenance Squadron.
As a result there are a huge amount of Air Force Squadron coins out being made out there. Just a few examples of some different types of air force squadron coins are shown below. You can find images of the man custom air force coins we have made in our image gallery here
Air Force coin traditions are steeped in the rich history of the USAF itself. There are documented images of USAF coins out there which were given to senior NCO academy graduates in Europe in the 1950′s era. There are other long held and rich custom Air Force coin traditions in the different career fields and specialty occupations in the air force. Examples of these would be the B-52 tail gunner coins, the eod coins, ‘cable dawgs coins’, sitcom, and many many others. I could fill half a library with different examples for you.
A newer Air Force coin tradition has taken shape at the graduation ceremony form basic training. It’s at this time that in addition to now having the honor of being called ‘airmen’ instead of ‘trainees’. The graduates are also awarded their first custom challenge coin at that ceremony. Each one receives the Air Force Airman’s Coin. This starts their journey and their ability to cherish, collect, and remember the milestones and their journey each warrior undertakes in their military careers.
Technically, Air Force One is the call sign of any Air Force aircraft carrying the President. However as the decades have passed the term ‘Air Force One’ has become symbolic in the image of the VC-25 aircraft made by Boeing.
The aircraft commonly known as ‘Air Force One’ is maintained and operated by the Presidential Airlift Group, part of the White House Military Office. The aircraft itself is typically piloted by USAF officers. The Airlift Group was founded in 1944 as the Presidential Pilot Office at the direction of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. For the next 20 years, various propeller driven aircraft served the President. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy became the first President to fly in his own jet aircraft, a modified Boeing 707. Over the years, several other jet aircraft have been used, with the first of the current aircraft being delivered in 1990 during the administration of President George H. W. Bush.
Phoenix Challenge Coins™ company offers our air force clients the opportunity to either buy their Air Force coin holders in our store or have them customized and delivered with their custom unit coin order. Below is a picture of one example of a customizable air force coin holder we offer to you for customization.
We encourage you to visit the air force coin section of our website to see a wide variety of air force unit coins which we have available for you to buy.