blue shirt

plural blue shirts

1. An Alaska State Trooper.

   “Frankly, I never thought of the brown shirts when I asked the blue shirts to attend this meeting,” Commissioner Burton admitted, “but you're right. If we are going to get a hint of something bad going on in the back country, these are the guys most likely to sniff it out..."

   2015, Ron Dalby, Pipeline, →ISBN

   1 more example

   The divisions overlap at some points, like Soldotna and Anchor Point -- blue shirts handling criminal and traffic complaints, brown shirts sticking to more mission-related issues -- but in Cordova the wildlife troopers cover all law enforcement that falls under the state's jurisdiction.

   2013, C. B. Bernard, Chasing Alaska: A Portrait of the Last Frontier Then and Now, →ISBN, page 233

2. A sailor who works on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, securing aircraft to the deck.

   Just give me Georgie, Bartman and a couple blue shirts and we'll lock it down.

   2014, Mark Piggott, The Dark Tides, →ISBN, page 9

   2 more examples

   Blue shirts are responsible for handling and securing squadron aircraft with chocks and chains. Although their work is mostly manual and considered the low end of the totem pole, the success of flight operations depends on it.

   1988, United States Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval Historical Center, Naval aviation news, page 21

   Then, out of the comer of my eye, I saw a blue shirt get blown down the flight deck.

   1992, Approach - Volume 37, Issue 7

3. USmedicineAn emergency medical service worker; a paramedic.

   If a prosecutor argues a case in which a blue-shirt was murdered on the job, attacks on a rescuer may be a factor in seeking the death penalty.

   2002, J. A. Karam, Into the Breach: A Year of Life and Death with EMS, New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 61

4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blue, shirt.

plural Blue Shirts

1. alternativeAlternative form of blue shirt.

   At this time, the pilot watched the chock and tie-down on the starboard landing gear being removed by a Blue Shirt.

   1993, United States Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval Historical Center, Naval aviation news, page 7

   2 more examples

   The Blue Shirts chocked and chained the aircraft, which meant they were responsible for securing aircraft to the deck. This was the first job of a Blue Shirt. After gaining experience shocking and chaining, a person would next move up to become a tractor driver, pulling aircraft around the deck.

   2011, William M. Trently, Snapshot: Ship's Dentists, →ISBN, page 72

   The Blue Shirts worked under the Yellow Shirts. Blue Shirts drove tugs, threw chocks, pushed airplanes, and scrubbed decks.

   2011, Max Gallimore -, From Here to Caprock, →ISBN, page 266