The Flight Meteorologist insignia is a military badge decoration of the United States Navy which is issued to officers of the Restricted Line who are commissioned as weather and meteorology specialists. To be issued the insignia, an officer must also have completed flight training to qualify as a Naval Aircrew Member. The insignia itself is very similar to the Naval Aircrew Badge.
Military badges of the United States are awards authorized by the United States Armed Forces that signify rating, qualification, or accomplishment in several career fields, and also serve as identification devices for personnel occupying certain assignments. Personal recognition is granted to service members by a number of awards and decorations. Together with military decorations, such badges are authorized for wear on military uniforms.
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most capable navy in the world and it has been estimated that in terms of tonnage of its active battle fleet alone, it is larger than the next 13 navies combined, which includes 11 U.S. allies or partner nations. with the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, and two new carriers under construction. With 319,421 personnel on active duty and 99,616 in the Ready Reserve, the Navy is the third largest of the service branches. It has 282 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of March 2018, making it the second-largest air force in the world, after the United States Air Force.
Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences which includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics, with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw modest progress in the field after weather observation networks were formed across broad regions. Prior attempts at prediction of weather depended on historical data. It was not until after the elucidation of the laws of physics and more particularly, the development of the computer, allowing for the automated solution of a great many equations that model the weather, in the latter half of the 20th century that significant breakthroughs in weather forecasting were achieved. An important domain of weather forecasting is marine weather forecasting as it relates to maritime and coastal safety, in which weather effects also include atmospheric interactions with large bodies of water.
Personnel authorized the Flight Meteorologist insignia are most often assigned to aircraft such as the P-3 Orion and engage in weather surveillance and airborne monitoring duties. A more dangerous activity of Flight Meteorologists is known as “hurricane chasing”, where a Navy aircraft will fly into a hurricane in order to gauge wind speed and other environmental measurements.
Navy precedence charts also list the Flight Meteorologist insignia as the Naval Aviation Observer Badge. This previous name dates to the original concept of the badge in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s, when the decoration was classified as the Naval Aviation Observer insignia and issued to flight support personnel such as navigators, bombardiers, radar officers, non-Naval Aviator co-pilots, and other officer aircrew.
In the 1940s, a slightly different version of this insignia was briefly issued with a silver compass rose centered on gold wings. Designated as the Naval Aviation Observer (Navigation) insignia, or simply as Naval Navigator wings, it was issued to Navy aerial navigators between 1945 and 1948. After 1948, Navy aerial navigators returned to wearing the Naval Aviation Observer insignia, although the former Naval Aviation Observer (Navigation) insignia continues to be awarded as the Marine Aerial Navigator insignia and Coast Guard Aerial Navigator insignia to Marine Corps and Coast Guard enlisted navigators in the KC-130 and HC-130 Hercules.
The Naval Aviation Observer (Navigation) Badge was a short-lived military badge of the United States Navy that was issued between March 1945 and 1947. The badge recognized naval personnel who were trained as navigators on board naval aircraft.
The Marine Aerial Navigator insignia is a military badge of the United States Marine Corps that is issued to Marine Corps enlisted personnel who complete flight training as a navigator on board Marine Corps aircraft. The Marine Aerial Navigator insignia is not issued to U.S. Naval aviation personnel and is the only independent aviation insignia issued to the Marine Corps.
An insignia similar to that of Flight Meteorologist were Naval Aviation Observer (NAO) wings. NAOs were non-pilot officers in naval aircraft who flew in a variety of roles such as navigator, bombardier, radar intercept officer, tactical coordinator and electronic warfare officer. Distinguishing the NAO insignia was a center device of a silver anchor within a silver circle and it was used by NAOs in both the Navy and Marine Corps from 1929 to 1968. For Navy and Marine Corps aviation officers previously designated as Naval Aviation Observers, these officers were redesignated as Naval Flight Officers in 1966 and their insignia replaced by the current Naval Flight Officer insignia beginning in 1966 and completed by 1968.
In the modern Navy, the Naval Aviation Observer insignia is occasionally issued under its original name but is jointly known as the Flight Meteorologist insignia.
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