My fiance has a friend who is a medical doctor who is also on active duty with a rank of Captain in the Air Force, where he practices medicine. How should we address the wedding invitation?
— Carol B. Dear Carol B.: All active-duty armed service personnel are addressed as: (Rank) + (Name) For a written address, there are different forms for “official” and “social” correspondence: I cover that in detail in my chapter on Forms of Address for US Armed Services in my book. Here’s the answer: On official correspondence (contacting him on business related to his official military duties) you would include his branch of service … which for most Air Force personnel would be simply USAF … but for an medical doctor would include a post nominal for the Medical Service Corps, and end up as: Captain William Blake, USAF, MSC Address On social correspondence post-nominal abbreviations are not used … thus leave off the “USAF, MSC” A wedding invitation’s mailing envelope uses the social form: Captain William Blake Address If you are using inside envelopes, the form is to use you would call him, and most formally that would be: Captain Blake It’s not impossible that one might addres
