Observer Badge

Badges for each profession generally persisted into the 1950s, at which time the USAF and USN observer badges and specialist badges were generally phased-out in-favor of the modern aircrew badges and/or combined navigator/flight specialist-observer badges (such as the United States Navy "Naval Aviation Observer and Flight Meteorologist Insignia" which is issued to flight-qualified mission specialists in both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps). The U.S. Air Force now only awards the USAF Observer Badge to Air Force personnel who have qualified as NASASpace Shuttlemission specialists, have flown an actual mission aboard the shuttle and/or the International Space Station and who are otherwise not previously aeronautically "rated." The USAF Observer Badge is technically the only remaining stand-alone observer badge within the U.S. Armed Forces proper, though it shares a design with the USAF Navigator Badge and USAF Combat Systems Officer Badge. The United States Army, since the separation of the USAAF from it in 1948, no longer awards any form of observer badge.