Editing Observer Badge (section)

{{Short description|American military badge}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2009}}

The '''Observer Badge''' is a [[Military badges of the United States|military badge]] of the [[United States armed forces]] dating from the [[World War I|First World War]].  The badge was issued to co-pilots, navigators, and flight support personnel (as [[air observer]]) who had received a variation in the training required for the standard [[United States Aviator Badge|Pilot's Badge]].  The Observer Badge survived through the [[Second World War]] and into the 1950s, at which time the concept of an Observer Badge was phased out in favor of the modern [[Aircrew Badge]] and [[Navigator Badge|Navigator-Observer Badges]].  In addition to wings for [[Naval Aviator]]s and [[Naval Flight Officer]]s, the [[United States Navy]] still maintains an "Observer Badge" which is issued to flight-qualified mission specialists, such as a select number of meteorologists and intelligence officers in both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. The U.S. Air Force awards its USAF Observer Badge, which is identical to the USAF Navigator Badge, to Air Force officers who have qualified as [[NASA]] [[Space Shuttle]] [[Mission Specialist]]s, have flown an actual mission aboard the shuttle and/or the [[International Space Station]] and who are otherwise not previously aeronautically rated as an Air Force pilot or navigator.

In the modern U.S. Armed Forces, the Observer Badge is rarely issued, but has seen a resurgence in the Air Forces of other countries, most notably the [[Royal Air Force|United Kingdom]] and [[Canadian Forces Air Command|Canada]].