The U.S. Air Force has tried many recruiting slogans, with varying degrees of success. The current Air Force recruiting slogan, “Aim High, Fly-Fight-Win,” is nothing like the Marine Corps’ legendary “We’re Looking For A Few Good Men” or “The Few The Proud, The Marines.” But the USAF continues its effort to come up with something as sticky as “Semper Fi.”
Marine Corps slogan recognition will always beat any branch (and even some national brands… there are studies on this), but Air Force advertising has been like the Cleveland Browns trying to find a quarterback.
1. “Aim High”
Easily the best slogan the Air Force ever used. “Aim High” is so good that the Air Force had to bring it back. It’s fast, snappy, memorable, and says all you need to know: We think we’re the best branch, so why try to join the Army or Navy?
We don’t know why they changed it in the first place, and they probably couldn’t tell you either, but whatever they changed it to had to be the Merrill McPeak uniform of Air Force slogans.
2. “Uno Ab Alto (One From on High)”
This sounds less like an airman and more like Gandalf the Gray. Or a Harry Potter spell. As anyone who got a bad tattoo when they were 21 can tell you, looking for that badass Latin quote will get you into trouble. But we can’t fault them too much because this was before “Aim High.”
Uno Ab Alto gets the number two spot because it’s a classier way of saying “Death From Above” (Mors Ab Alto), which I think is a far better recruiting slogan for the Drone Age. If you want to attract more drone pilots, just say what you mean.
3. “Aim High . . . Fly-Fight-Win”
Sloganeering as a result of surveys, meetings, and calls for suggestions: the true Air Force way. This latest iteration of “Aim High” ranks as number three because it’s riding the coattails of number one.
This will likely not be replaced for a long time, considering the amount of research, time, and money effort spent on coming up with it. It shouldn’t be a surprise to Air Force veterans that the Air Force put so much into changing their slogan only to revert to one they used a decade or so ago, and added a college fight song to it.
If the Air Force wanted to use things airmen naturally say to each other as a recruiting slogan, they should have just listened to airmen in squadron hallways, but this would probably result in the Air Force slogan being “Have a great Air Force day” or “See you tomorrow, Doug.”
4. “The Sky’s No Limit”
Hearkening back to the Air Force’s Cold War glory days, “The Sky’s No Limit” is actually not a bad one to fall back on if we’re just going to start resurrecting old lines. The test pilots of the days of yore were pretty ballsy, and with the Air Force’s expanding missions as an Air and Space Force, this is a good descriptive slogan, even if it’s a little vague.
The only real problem with this is that a lot of the Air Force doesn’t really fly, so for them, the sky’s no limit, but getting there certainly is. Believe it or not, some people who join the Air Force don’t even want to fly. The fighting and winning are fun, though.
If we’re gonna hearken back to the glory days of the Strategic Air Command and ballsy test pilots, we should just go with the gold Hollywood already discovered: “The Right Stuff.”
5. “Do Something Amazing”
While the Air Force has some heroic people working in incredible career fields (that is, people who do those amazing somethings), it also has cooks, plumbers, and lawyers. All are necessary to the Air Force mission (and are true-blue lifesavers when you really want or need one—trust me, you want these people to be your friends).
But these aren’t the careers you think of when you’re considering joining the military. You might be disappointed when you’re thinking about all the amazing AFSCs you can cross-train into. Working with lasers and drones sounds cool until you end up in Security Forces (not that there’s anything wrong with Security Forces, especially if you want to be a cop).
At least they’re not patronizing people by framing additional duties as a great activity (looking at you, Army). Actually, you know what’s amazing? Spending an entire enlistment without ever having to see Tops In Blue.
Also, “amazing” is what a sorority girl calls her summer study abroad program in London.
6. “We Do The Impossible Everyday”
… And we do the hyperbolic so much more. You can read Air Force performance reviews to find the most flowery language you’ve ever seen. It’s as if the thesaurus was created just for Air Force performance reviews—after all, not everyone can be the tip of a spear.
As an Air Force NCO, you need one to make it sound like your creepy subordinate deserves a goddamn medal for volunteering to watch people pee.
“We Do The Impossible Everyday” looks like the Air Force doesn’t know the meaning of the word impossible (which is a much better slogan. Air Force, call me). The biggest problem with this slogan is that they also do the very, very possible all the time. Not everyone gets the “impossible” job.
You know what’s possible? Getting booted out for your third alcohol-related incident because Frank’s Franks wouldn’t put hot dogs on Anthony’s Pizza. You know who makes that possible? Air Force JAGs and Security Forces.
7. “No One Comes Close”
This wouldn’t have been so bad in retrospect, except you know who actually does come close? The Navy. They also have fighters and stuff. Not exactly the same missions, but it’s close enough to make this slogan awkward. The truth is that a lot of branches come close. Other countries, too. Apart from NATO allies using all our stuff, China literally stole American fifth-generation fighter information and made its own copy of it. That’s pretty close.
8. “Cross Into The Blue”
This nebulous Blue. Context will tell you it’s the sky, but the ocean is also blue, for the record, and it’s a much more tangible blue to cross into. This would be a better line for trying to get Army people to come to the Air Force, but I doubt that would be the goal (airmen use the term “Army Proof” for a reason).
You could say “the blue” refers to Air Force’s blue uniforms, but you know who has also worn blues? Literally everyone else.
9. “It’s Not Science Fiction, It’s What We Do Every Day”
This would be a better slogan for Scientology. I don’t remember Orson Scott Card writing about drone strikes in Pakistan, but maybe somewhere a six-year-old is playing video games and ending terrorists.
It’s not science fiction, but no one thinks it is, either. No one confuses drones with alien technology. The Internet had been around for a long time when these ads started. So too with night vision. Your MRE still suggests using “a rock or something.” So, until DARPA puts those Iron Man suits in field tests, no one will ever make that connection.
America’s airmen (for the most part) are not delusional about themselves. They don’t need to be. For all the “Chair Force” smack airmen take from other branches, troops like Ammo are awesome in their own right and don’t need to pretend they’re all special operators or techno-wizards.
10. “We’ve Been Waiting For You”
Slightly ominous, this one doesn’t really inspire as much as it implies the Air Force has been watching you while you sleep, staring at you from across crowded rooms, and following you home after school.
11. “Above All”
Unfinished thoughts probably always seem like a great idea for a slogan in meetings. Sure, I get the idea of putting your branch above everyone else’s as a way to foster esprit de corps, but it can be troublesome sometimes.
Every branch has its strengths, so let’s be real. Unlike this Air Force Training Instructor:
Another reason this slogan ranks so low is the lack of originality. Uber alles (above all) is part of the German national anthem and has some heavy historical significance in that country, if you catch my drift.
12. “A Great Way of Life”
This is an older slogan that probably seemed appropriate for a time when the Air Force had to pull people from living the American Dream and conscript them into the Air Force, where they would sleep on the flightline and be prepared to bomb Russians into the Stone Age 24/7. Repeating that it’s “A Great Way of Life” sounds sus.
We will say that the airmen of the Strategic Air Command era were pretty badass in their own right, doing a lot more with much less. Nowadays, this great way of life would mean highlighting the golf course, gym, the dorms (and the airmen who live there), the DFAC, and all the stupid sh*t young airmen tend to do when they get to their first duty station.
