Perhaps no greater gulf exists in the officer corps of the Air Force than the one between a lieutenant colonel and a full colonel. It is in many ways greater than the gulf between a colonel and a brigadier general. If a man retires as a lieutenant colonel, he may be looked upon by his contemporaries as a man who never broke out of the herd. But a colonel is a commander, part of the leadership—no longer a “light colonel” but a “full bull” who is only one step from being a general.
