US Air Force Observer Rating
With the creation of the United States Air Force in 1947, aviation observers were phased out and replaced by more highly trained specialists known as Aircrew members. The Aircrew Badge had been created prior to the Second World War; however, since that time it had been issued only to enlisted personnel. With the creation of the USAF Officer Aircrew Badge (an unrated award), however, the Navigator-Observer Badge is now issued to otherwise unrated officers who complete NASA Mission Specialist training, with the aeronautical rating of Observer. Upon completion of an operational mission they may then apply to the Air Force Chief of Staff for the Astronaut qualifier that permits them to wear the Astronaut Badge.
Read more about this topic: Observer Badge
Famous quotes containing the words air, force and/or observer:
“I remember when I was first assigned to jets. I said to the colonel, “Colonel, I joined this man’s air force to fly an airplane. But nobody’s gonna hitch me to no Roman candle.””
—Kurt Neumann (1906–1958)
“The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“I had such a wonderful feeling last night, walking beneath the dark sky while cannon boomed on my right and guns on my left ... the feeling that I could change the world only by being there.”
—Viorica Butnariu, Rumanian student at Bucharest University. letter, Dec. 23, 1989, to American friend. Observer (London, Dec. 31, 1989)