Captain is the rank above
First Lieutenant and below the rank of
Major. The pay grade for an officer of this rank is O-3, and promotion normally occurs at the 48th month of commissioned service. Air Force captains' authority varies by group assignment. In the operations group, senior captains may be flight commanders while more junior captains may be heads of departments. In the maintenance and mission support groups they are almost always flight commanders. In the medical group, captains usually have little administrative responsibility as captain is the entry level rank for many medical officers. Captains in the MSC, BSC, and NC corps, however, are sometimes assigned as flight commanders.
