The Driver and Mechanic Badge is a military badge of the United States Army which was first created in July 1942. The badge was originally referred to as the “Motor Vehicle Badge” and adopted its current title of Driver and Mechanic Badge during the Korean War.
The Driver and Mechanic Badge is awarded to enlisted soldiers who have received training, and subsequent qualification, to operate or repair military motor vehicles. The badge is issued with a number of metal bars, suspended beneath the decoration, which denote the qualification received. The current bars which are issued to the Driver and Mechanic Badge are as follows:
- DRIVER - A (for amphibious vehicles)
- DRIVER - M (for motorcycles)
- DRIVER - T (for tracked vehicles)
- DRIVER - W (for wheeled vehicles)
- MECHANIC (for automotive or allied vehicles)
- OPERATOR - S (for special mechanical equipment)
The Driver and Mechanic Badge is worn suspended beneath a service member’s standard decorations and to the wearer's right of any Weapons Qualification Badges.
Famous quotes containing the words driver, mechanic and/or badge:
“God help the horse, and the driver too!
And the people and beasts who have never a friend!
For the driver easily might have been you,
And the horse be me by a different end!
And nobody knows how their days will cease!
And the poor, when they’re old, have little of peace!”
—James Kenneth Stephens (1882–1950)
“He may have seen with his mechanic eyes
A world without a meaning, and had room,
Alone amid magnificence and doom,
To build himself an airy monument”
—Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)
“Just across the Green from the post office is the county jail, seldom occupied except by some backwoodsman who has been intemperate; the courthouse is under the same roof. The dog warden usually basks in the sunlight near the harness store or the post office, his golden badge polished bright.”
—Administration for the State of Con, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)