The Maintenance occupational badge is awarded to enlisted Airmen in four career fields—Aerospace Maintenance (2A), Precision Measurement (2P), Maintenance Management (2R), and Munitions & Weapons (2W). All told, these career fields comprise nearly 35 jobs, with the vast majority of them (28) involved in Aerospace Maintenance. Officers in the specialty code 21, Aircraft Maintenance, are also awarded the Maintenance badge.
The responsibilities of the Airmen in the Aerospace Maintenance career field are almost breathtaking in their scope, which goes a long way in explaining why there are so many Air Force Specialty Codes associated with it. In addition to maintaining the numerous systems found on aircraft (avionics, propulsion, flight control, navigation, hydraulic, environmental, radar, and electronic warfare, to name a few), they’re also responsible for ground equipment used in conjunction with aircraft weapon systems. They also fabricate parts and equipment from metal, rubber, plastic, and even fabric.
Until 2009, the Maintenance badge was awarded to Airmen in the 2E Communications and Electronics Maintenance career field, which encompassed a dozen AFSCs related to comms, radars, telemetry, antenna and able systems, visual image and detection systems, meteorological and navigation equipment, and other cutting-edge technologies. But when the 2E career field was eliminated and more than 40,000 across twelve jobs were moved to the newly created Cyberspace Support field in November, they were given the badge of that field to wear instead of the old Maintenance badge. (Some of the AFSCs, such as Ground Radar Systems and Cable and Antenna Systems, kept their old names despite the classification in the new career field).
Designed before this occupational realignment, the heraldic images found on the Maintenance badge reflect the occupations from which its wearers are drawn: Aircraft, Communications and Electronics, and Munitions. A falcon holding a bomb in one talon and an aircraft in the other symbolizes the ability of the Air Force to deliver powerful blows in the defense of our nation’s freedom and liberty, while the olive wreath is emblematic of the peace that is secured by the readiness provided by the maintenance of all three of the systems.