My wife asked me the other day why AF has so many stripes on their arms. They include the first recruit stripe to apprentice to Airman and on from there, when none of the other branches do. My Navy would give you three slashes in the same enlisted system on the sleeve starting with Seaman recruit, then Seaman Apprentice, then Seaman until you made Petty Officer third class with one chevron and the crow. Not sure how Army and Marines work theirs since "specialties" have a different system. Correct my if I'm wrong.
I don’t know how it is now. During the Vietnam era, I always thought the Army was the easiest place to make rank, we had two year service draftees who were E-6’s. The Marines being in second place. You could do four years in the AF and still be an E-4, in fact that was typical. If I had extended for 12 months after my two, I could have made E-5, I had way more than enough points and I am pretty sure my CO would have recommended me.