Modern Rank
Modern American colonels usually command infantry brigades, USAF groups or wings, and USMC regiments or Marine Aircraft Groups. An Army colonel typically commands brigade-sized units (4,000 to 6,000 soldiers), with another colonel or a lieutenant colonel as executive officer and a Command Sergeant Major as a senior non-commissioned officer advisor. An Air Force colonel typically commands a wing consisting of 1,000 to 3,000 airmen with another colonel as the vice commander and a Command Chief Master Sergeant as principal senior NCO enlisted adviser. Some USAF colonels are commanders of groups, which are the major components of wings. Colonels are also found as the chief of staff at divisional level-(Army) or Numbered Air Force-level staff agencies.
In the modern armed forces, the colonel's eagle is worn facing forward with head and beak pointing towards the wearer's front. Of all U.S. military commissioned officer rank, only the colonel's eagle has a distinct right and left insignia. All other commissioned officer rank insignia can be worn on either the right or left side.
Colonels are sometimes referred to (but not addressed) as full-bird colonels or "O-6," which is their pay grade, in order to differentiate between colonels and lieutenant colonels, since lieutenant colonels are also referred to and addressed as simply "colonel." In the Army, a colonel who has been selected for promotion to brigadier general is authorized to use Colonel (P) (as in Promotable) when signing official documents. In all other branches the officer still uses colonel until the date of his actual promotion.
Most Army colonels receive postgraduate level senior joint professional military education (JPME) at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The 2009 graduating class was 336 including 198 army officers and the rest divided among other military branches as well as foreign military leaders. All USAF colonels will be graduates of the Air War College at Maxwell AFB, Alabama via in-residence at Maxwell, non-resident seminar at another USAF installation, or via correspondence, or will be graduates of an equivalent senior JPME program sponsored by one of the other services.
Read more about this topic: Colonel (United States)
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