Three crossed gold trumpets are used on the Fire Protection badge worn by Air Force military personnel and on the cloth insignia or shoulder marks worn by civilian Fire Emergency Services (FES) personnel working within in FES to designate the position of Assistant Chief. Assistant Chiefs are found in each part of the FES flight organization, which is broadly divided into Management and Administration, Fire Prevention, Training, and Operations.
FES personnel serving as Assistant Chiefs must complete a specific list of Fire Emergency Services Certification Programs that varies depending on which part of the organization they’re working in, but there is a great deal of overlap: All Assistant Chiefs must achieve the Fire Officer III, Incident Safety Officer, Hazardous Materials Incident Commander, and ICS 300/400 certifications.
Each Installation Fire Chief is authorized to determine insignia that are used for various positions, so the gold wreaths on these Assistant Fire Chief insignias are not a standard design across the entire Air Force.