For the first time, the Air Force will join the other services in allowing some of its enlisted airmen to pin on their new ranks early in a practice known as “frocking.”
The Air Force will now allow certain airmen selected for chief master sergeant to pin on a few months before their official promotion date. They do not receive the higher pay and allowance of their new rank, but they take on the title and authorities of chief master sergeant.
Frocking is common in the Army, Navy and Marine Corps enlisted ranks, and the Air Force allows a handful of officers selected for major, lieutenant colonel or general officer to pin on early.
Until now, the Air Force has never allowed enlisted to frock, Chief Master Sgt. Katherine Grabham, assistant to Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth Wright, told Air Force Times Thursday. In the past, Air Force officials said it was not necessary.
But with the growth in the number of joint assignments that airmen are filling, Air Force officials felt it was time for a change. A memo posted on the Air Force’s internal personnel site, myPers, earlier in November said that frocking requests are intended for chief selects being assigned to joint-duty positions or international positions where they have significant interactions with senior enlisted from allied militaries, which might be very rank-focused.
A commander could also let a chief-select wear his new rank if he is going to a new, highly competitive billet known as a Commander Involvement Process position, where he will be closely interacting with other chiefs.
“Historically, it may not have made sense” to allow frocking, Grabham said. “But in joint assignments where we’re sending an E-9-select to fill an E-9 billet in the joint world, it makes more sense if they’re already wearing it when they walk in, versus being a select and not having the seat at the table until after they sew on.”
Grabham said it’s another example of how Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein and Wright are looking for ways to make squadrons operate better, even if it means changing long-standing rules.
“Just because we haven’t done it in the past, or just because it had been a ‘no’ before, doesn’t mean it always has to be a ‘no,’ ” Grabham said.
Grabham said the new policy is technically in effect now. But the first senior non-commissioned officers to actually be frocked will likely be among the next class of chief-selects, which will be announced next month. She expects less than 10 percent of each E-9 class ― roughly 500 are usually selected for promotion each year ― will be frocked.
Commanders also have the option of frocking an inbound E-9 select, even if that SNCO doesn’t fall into one of the specified categories. That commander would have to request an exception to policy and make a case for why that SNCO needs to wear the E-9 rank right away to accomplish his mission, Grabham said.
This might be necessary, for example, if an E-9 select is coming on as the new squadron superintendent of an aircraft maintenance unit, Grabham said. That chief-select needs to have clear authority to tell senior master sergeants, or perhaps even another chief master sergeant, what to do. So frocking might be necessary to clarify that chief-select’s authority.
There are now no plans to expand frocking to other enlisted ranks, but Grabham said officials have not ruled it out. The next enlisted force development panel will likely discuss frocking other ranks when it meets in December, she said, but there’s not a huge push one way or another.
The term frocking comes from the Navy, and dates back to the years before radio technology allowed for promotion orders to be transmitted quickly. In those days, it took months for promotion orders ― and the accompanying reassignment orders ― to reach a ship. When a ship commander needed to fill a newly vacant position, he would send a promotion recommendation to the Department of the Navy.
In the interim, a departing naval officer would give his frock coat ― a symbol of rank at that time ― to the officer recommended to take his place.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
