Posted on Mar 6, 2016
Why do I never see army pilots wearing their aviation badge?
363K
952
274
204
204
0
Maybe I don't understand the two badges properly. But why do I never see them worn by pilots?
Aviation
Aviation
15A: Aviation Officer
Pilot
Badges
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 100
222
222
0
I was hoping another AVN WO would chime in, but I guess I can. The FOD reason is definitely the top reason aviators don't wear the pin on wings. Some don't wear sew on since we turn flight suits back in. However, personally, if you are an aviator in an aviation unit, everyone is an aviator. I've been told by senior enlisted folks that badges are meant to be a morale boost for enlisted folks. I've always noticed those with jump wings, assault wings, CABs, aviation wings all stacked up felt an overwhelming need to wear their resume. Pilots really don't need to wear their resume. They just walk up to the aircraft, get in, and fly away. That's all the resume one really needs.
(222)
(0)
CPL Joseph Elinger
CW3 (Join to see) Your teamstes matter & so does the mission.
Your loved ones matter.
Everything else is .....
Your loved ones matter.
Everything else is .....
(0)
(0)
CW2 Jalistair B
True, but if you remember back to the old ABDU days pilots did wear their resume. We stopped because the badges were no longer sew ons.
(0)
(0)
53
53
0
They wear they aviator badge unless its not seen on. Then they remove the pinned badge while around the aircraft due it being a FOD hazard
(53)
(0)
MSG Loren Tomblin
I suppose all that is for safety reasons. Losses clips can sink ships. I was always pissed because I could not smoke a cigarette when were got on the Hueys for an assualt. Everyone has a story to tell. lol
(0)
(0)
CW2 Jalistair B
No, most pilots don't wear badges even when not on the flight line. When the sew on badges disappeared with the ABDU pilots stopped wearing them.
(0)
(0)
CW2 Jalistair B
CPT John Scott - Ah yes! The flight suit is long gone for the army. When I first started flying in 2001 you could use either a flight suit or the ABDU. If you used the flight suit we all had that same name patch. For the ABDU you would sew your name, army, rank, and badges onto the uniform. Once that went away the ACU and subsequent issues simply had a velcro name, rank, and army tab for the uniform. If you used badges you had to use the plastic pin on badges. Almost nobody would use those and for those who did you had to remove them before flight.
(0)
(0)
SSgt Robert Jarvis
SPC Cesar Freytes - My son was a Cav Scout. They wore their Stetson's at every event (not in the field). I don't know of any Cavalry Commander that would prohibit the wearing of a Stetson. They even wore them at the ceremony when the entire unit deployed.
(0)
(0)
51
51
0
ASU's though, your going see it. They make sure of that. Especially them Apache' aviators. ;D
(51)
(0)
SGT Debra Jahnel
My roomies & I couldn't tell if the guys in the Apache (hovering outside our barracks windows at Ft Campbell one morning in 1983) were wearing theirs or not - we didn't even have our glasses on yet! ROFLMFAO!
(2)
(0)
SGT Bud Mullins
In the early 60's I attended Load Master School but never received any crediatability for the school even though I later had to load the C130's with all our equipment. Later in Civilian life I became a pilot and flew many years for the CAP.
(1)
(0)
27
27
0
PO1 David Jordon
how can you tell if a Navy Aircrewman is in the room, he has your girlfriend sitting with him. lol
(2)
(0)
SGT Danny Strzyzewski
PO1 David Jordon Don't you mean he would be with your best "buddy" who y'all hot bunk with?
(0)
(0)
You all here on RP just taught me what "FOD" is -- learned something new today from you Aviation folks. :)
(17)
(0)
SGT Daniel Rocco Ames
I now work in the civilian sector of a major defense contractor building flight controls. I can tell you that "FOD" is an acronym we hear every day.
(0)
(0)
CPL Joseph Elinger
Capt Mark Strobl or a "Friend of Dorothy," a Homosexual.
Very old (WW2 era) slang.
Very old (WW2 era) slang.
(0)
(0)
SSgt Robert Jarvis
Every morning before shift change every firefighter would line u and check from the Fire Station all the way to the far side of the taxiway. We also always found FOD.
(0)
(0)
14
14
0
Since when? I retired in 1994 and worked with the Army until 2014. I saw a lot of wings on uniforms. Oh, and I love the Cav Stetsons with all the badges.
(14)
(0)
12
12
0
Well being that I was there during that exchange from flight suit to Aviation Battle Dress Uniform (ABDU) back in the 90's to what is now the ACU pattern. It was a top leadership push to make everyone the same, the one piece flight suits. The one piece flight suit was not only a status symbol for aviation but where one could wear their own unit patch; which promoted what we old timers like to refer to as esprit de corps. A sense of pride in one's unit. A higher standard than ones self. So with us all fitting into one mold, why would one wear badges. We are Soldiers first, Officers second, and Pilots third.
(12)
(0)
CW3 (Join to see)
Get out of here with that motivation, pride, morale, cohesion, practical, and tradition stuff good sir! History and tradition has no place in an organization built on history and tradition!
(4)
(0)
CW4 Bob Hardy
Todd, funny to see you calling yourself an old timer now! Glad to see you doing well. Without the flight wings, you could guess who was a pilot by their big mustache! Of course, that would have been most WO's. Pitty that wearing ones wings has fallen to the side. So much for pride in achievement. I wore my wings with pride as it was darn hard to earn and keep. I am glad I retired while I got to wear my pickle suit! I was a hold out as you were well aware. Still had the same old SP4 as well. The same one I started in '83 and finished in 2000 with.
(1)
(0)
CW4 Todd McElmurry
Bob I realized I was a ole timer when I walked out on the flight line for a preflight with a kid 10 years younger than me and "they" were calling him old. It's that sudden moment in time when you realize that you have crossed that invisible line from being young to being old lol.
(1)
(0)
10
10
0
HAHAHAHA...I'm just too much of a cheap ass to get them sewn on to a uniform that is supposed to be replaced on a pretty regular basis. *glares at CIF*...SUPPOSED TO....I keep ONE set of the normal uniform that has my "resume" for occasions like promotions, change of commands, and staff duty. Because...again, I'm a cheap ass, and the velcro looks terrible, but I don't want to spend money on getting name tapes and rank sewn on more than one set. Yes, I have three more serviceable sets that are all velcroed out thanks to some un-named good Idea fairy, but the times I'm not wearing nomex are few and far between.
(10)
(0)
CW3 (Join to see)
PVT Raymond Lopez lol, that is fantastic! Sorry to say I'm not aware of anyone in my family who was an Air Cav commander in Vietnam, but I'd sure like to meet him!
(0)
(0)
8
8
0
8
8
0
Personally I like to sew on all the badges I have earned. It's a sense of pride for me, only two, but none the less I have earned them. Pin on is too much of a hassle removing them before preflight then trying to place back in the exact spot.
(8)
(0)
SGT Eric Knutson
Chief, every reason to be proud, and I understand that you guys KEEPING that badge is much harder than any other badge, Avn you have several hoops to jump through (or not jump through) to keep it, every other skill badge once you earn it, you keep it except under very specific circumstances. and I also agree with the sew on's, they do tend to stay put, don't they.
(0)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google