Aircrews rank in the Army Air Corps

I'm researching family history and digging into the military record of my uncle Roy Ball who was killed on November 16, 1943. He was a waist gunner on a B-17 and went down in the North Sea near Norway.

I was wondering about his rank, Staff Sergeant. He held this rank at the time of his death and was only in the service for a little over a year. I remember hearing or reading somewhere that the Allies gave their aircrews higher ranks than individuals that didn't fly, with the same time in service, because of the aircrews’ chances of ending up in a POW camp. The higher rank was supposed to help them receive better treatment while in the camps. I have researched this online but couldn’t find anything to confirm my earlier memory. I believe there maybe something to this because all the enlisted crew on Roy’s aircraft where a S/Sgt. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

 

Cant help directly...but from what ive read, the US pilots had on average a higher rank and pay...the majority of allied pilots were "Sgt Pilots"...

 

I have never found anything that specified this policy in writing, but there is a lot of evidence that it was the policy - at least until late '44. There is anecdotal evidence from aircrews who say that all enlisted men on a crew were promoted to Sgt or above prior to overseas deployment for the reasons you stated. There is also evidence in the form of aircraft load lists and MACRs giving the ranks of enlisted men as Sgt or above. This policy apparently was stopped sometime in late '44, as by the spring of '45 the majority of enlisted men on aircrews were no longer Sgt or above.

 

Thanks for the information