The Army Air Force Technician Badge was a decoration of the United States Army Air Forces which was first created in 1941. Similar in design to the Weapons Qualification Badge, the Army Air Force Technician Badge was awarded to denote special training and qualifications held by members of the Army Air Force.
The Army Air Force Technician Badge appeared as a wreathed propeller from which qualification bars were suspended that denoted the training and qualifications held by the wearer. 27 bars were authorized to the Army Air Force Technician Badge, including:
- AP ARMORER (Aircraft armory specialists)
- LINK TRAINER INST (Ground school training personnel)
- T RET & SIGHT SP (Weapons calibration and systems experts)
- TELETYPE MECH (Teletype Mechanic)
- WX FORECASTER (Meteorologists and weather forecasters)
With the creation of the United States Air Force in 1947, the Army Air Force Technician Badge was renamed as the Air Force Technician Badge and was authorized for wear into the 1960s. There were no Air Force Technician Badges issued after the Korean War, however, and by the 1970s the badge was considered obsolete.
Famous quotes containing the words army, air, force and/or badge:
“What is called common sense is excellent in its department, and as invaluable as the virtue of conformity in the army and navy,—for there must be subordination,—but uncommon sense, that sense which is common only to the wisest, is as much more excellent as it is more rare.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“To be worst,
The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune,
Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear.
The lamentable change is from the best;
The worst returns to laughter. Welcome, then,
Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace!
The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst
Owes nothing to thy blasts.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“It is the vice of our public speaking that it has not abandonment. Somewhere, not only every orator but every man should let out all the length of all the reins; should find or make a frank and hearty expression of what force and meaning is in him.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It would much conduce to the public benefit, if, instead of discouraging free-thinking, there was erected in the midst of this free country a dianoetic academy, or seminary for free-thinkers, provided with retired chambers, and galleries, and shady walks and groves, where, after seven years spent in silence and meditation, a man might commence a genuine free-thinker, and from that time forward, have license to think what he pleased, and a badge to distinguish him from counterfeits.”
—George Berkeley (1685–1753)