blue shirts

Noun

blue shirt (plural blue shirts)

1. An Alaska State Trooper.
   • 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.
   • 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
3. (US) An 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.