What would be your gender-neutral alternative to referring to all Air Force members as "airmen"?

LT COL Leave it alone. Do you gets people bitching about it or is just some BS PC crowd that wants it. You will never get the sexes to Change in most cases and there will always be men and women. Besides I like the sound of women. The AF started this crap way long ago and you telling me it''s not complete yet. Someone is setting on their butts.

In response to the criticism in this thread directed at JCS and the top leaders of the 5 branches of the US Military, I offer this point of view: These Officers (and quite a few E-10's) are completely under the thumb of the President, SECDEF and SECNAV, Politicians, and myriad numbers of other "Political" civilians with their fingers in the pot stirring up the shit so to speak, and are caught between a rock and a hard place. Like every other member of the military who plans to make the military a career, I suspect that the vast majority of these upper echelon leaders are torn between "doing what is right for their Country and their respective Service" and preserving their own six's (which is a natural "human condition"). Can you imagine being told by the Pres. and SEC DEF/NAV to swallow and the consequences be damned, no matter how bitter the pill is? Now, I'm quite sure there are a few "Blue Falcons" in the Leadership mix who will swallow with a smile on their face, ask for more, and then gladly push the pill over their cliff to begin it's decent through the ranks; hopefully at those ranks in the Leadership they are few and far between. It's a direct result of complete civilian control over the Military, which is enshrined in the Constitution, and a necessary evil to prevent a Military Dictatorship. The Service Leadership is duty bound to obey the orders of the Commander in Chief (unless the orders are illegal). Our only recourse is to continue "pushing back" from below, and voting for a President who understands the role of the Services and respects the traditions and ceremony of the Services (which I hope just occurred). I also believe that issues like "the application of PC" are designed to take our eye off actual problems (both Military and Civilian) and focus it on an "manufactured problem" elsewhere, a common Political ploy used for millennia. Just my opinion; take it or leave it.

Airheads? Hey, I used to be one of them 35 years ago.

I can not understand why this line is continuing so long, since most every comment I have seen over the past months has been against such a "politically correct" change. We are what we are and what we have been and done in our service. Why don't we focus our efforts on the things that are not happening that are most vital, like adequate training and maintenance...our pilots and others are not getting enough flight time (we are lucky that deployed units get time in the air) and too many aircraft are cannibalized for parts to keep others flyable, but using already used parts means more maintenance sooner; this is not really a cost savings in the long term and makes us less ready to respond to a national emergency. We will not be ready for emergencies if we keep waiting for planned deployments to give aircrews flight time and make all aircraft flight worthy. We need to change the political culture that has put us in this dangerous position, especially those of us who are no longer in active status and are more free to be politically engaged. And we all need to vote for those who will support our needs next week.

How about returning the USAF back to the US Army and we just call them all soldiers?

Marine, Soldier, Seaman and Airman are all gender neutral. Leave something that is not broke or killing anyone alone. We need to stop categorizing and separating people by sex, color, creed, etc…we are all Americans, and a Marine is a Marine, a Soldier a Soldier, a Seaman, a Seaman and a Airman a Airman… in the military your individualism begins with your name, not your rank or service.

AIRMAN. Simple. We don't need to give up our tradition for so called political correctness.

Colonel I don't have an alternative but I'm so tired of this PC crap I could scream. It's like learning a second language.

Vote and elect Donald Trump and then we can put this mess away.

WOMEN is there not MEN in that word??????? Enough said