1 Aug 1919:           Resigned his commission in the Royal Lancashire Regiment on appointment to a Permanent Commission in the RAF.

 1 Aug 1919:    Awarded Permanent Commission as a Major-General

19 Aug 1919:   AOC, South-Eastern Area?

15 Sep 1919:    AOC, Southern Area.

 1 Apr 1920:     AOC, Inland Area.

26 May 1922:   On Special Duty in India.

1 Oct 1922:      GOC/AOC, Iraq Command

 9 Oct 1924:      Placed on half pay list, Scale A.

 1 Jan 1925:      AOC in C, Air Defence of Great Britain.

26 May 1928:   On loan to Australian Government.

 1 Jan 1929:      Air Member for Personnel

 1 Jan 1930:      Chief of the Air Staff

 1 Apr 1933:      Relinquished his appointment as CAS and placed on half pay.

 3 Apr 1933:      Restored to full pay as an additional (temporary) member of the Air Council.

22 May 1933:    Relinquished his appointment as an additional (temporary) member of the Air Council.

John Salmond and his elder brother, Geoffrey, would become the only brothers to both hold the post of Chief of the Air Staff and although John was the youngest, he would lead the promotion race between them throughout their careers.   Finding the life of an infantry officer on garrison duty somewhat lacking he decided to learn to fly.  Gaining RAeC Certificate No 272 on 12 August 1912, he then joined the first course at the CFS where on graduating he was immediately appointed to the staff as an instructor.  This was followed by a posting to Farnborough where he was involved in some early test flying, particularly of the SE4.  An incident during his command of No 3, showed his level of compassion.  When the pilot and a number of others were killed when a bomb exploded  whilst being loaded onto one of his aircraft, he immediately cleared the area and insisted on removing the debris himself.

In  August 1917 he was appointed to a seat on the Army Council as Director-General of Military Aeronautics and in October he joined the newly created Air Council in the same post. However, with the forthcoming formation of the RAF and the appointment of Trenchard as CAS, Salmond returned to France to replace Trenchard as GOC of the RFC in France.  Originally intending to leave the RAF and enter civil aviation, Trenchard returned to the post of CAS just in time to convince Salmond that he should Remain in the post-war RAF.   In 1922, John Salmond travelled to India to assess the air situation following complaints from RAF personnel stationed there.  Unfortunately, although many of the problems faced by the RAF in India were obvious, the solutions were not.  The RAF in India was actually funded by the Indian Government and not from the UK and so although his recommendations were accepted many of them were slow in materialising. 

Instead of returning home he was sent to Iraq where he became the first RAF officer to be given command of all British Forces, both land and air, in a particular area.  This resulted from Trenchard's suggestion that air control of areas such as Iraq could be cheaper than conventional land forces.  As a result of his success in completing operations against Sheikh Mahmoud in 1923, the Prime Minister authorised his immediate promotion to Air Marshal.

Returning to the UK, he became the first AOC in C of the newly independent Air Defence of Great Britain, which was to administer the fighter and bomber elements of the RAF, leaving Inland Area responsible for the non-operational aspects including training and for some reason Army Co-operation.  During 1928, he was asked by the Governments of both Australia and New Zealand to visit their countries and advise them on the future development of their Air Forces.   As CAS, Salmond successfully built on the foundations laid by Trenchard and continued the fight to maintain the RAF's independence from the others two services.  Resigning in April 1933 to be replaced by his elder brother, Sir Geoffrey, he found himself in the unenviable position of having to temporarily re-occupy the post owing to the death of his brother whilst in office.

Finally handing over to Sir Edward Ellington in 1934, he continued to take an active interest in the RAF and remained involved wherever possible.  On 28 January 1936 he was a mourner at the funeral of HM King George V.  He was appointed a Government Director of Imperial Airways and in 1938 accepted chairmanship of the Air Defence Cadet Corps, formed by the Air League of the British Empire.

At the start of World War Two he accepted the appointment of Director of Armament Production at the Ministry of Aircraft Production. He was also asked to chair a number of committees including the Night Defence Committee in 1940.  Not always in agreement with the Minister of Aircraft Production, Lord Beaverbrook he resigned in 1941 but was almost immediately asked by Portal (CAS) to become Director-General of Flying Control and Air Sea Rescue.   He finally retired due to ill health in 1943, but continued to take an active interest in the fortunes of the RAF until his death, being made a Freeman of the City of London in 1957.