SHOULDER BADGES

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 December 1940, Page 12

SHOULDER BADGES

N.Z.-TRAINED AIRMEN New Zealand-trained airmen are sporting new and attractive cloth shoulder badges which immediately identify them as from the Dominion. The words “New Zealand appear across the top of the badge, in broad blue letters. They surmount a flying eagle with wings fully spread. Previously smaller shoulder wings were issued to all non-commissioned ranks. Airmen who have been issued with the new distinctive badges are New Zealand trained sergeant Pl By’ this time most people are sufficiently familiar with Royal New Zealand Air Force uniforms to recognise the difference between fying personnel and ground staff. a qualified pilot, for instance, whether of commissioned or non-commiss’Oii-ed rank, wears big, embroidered “wings” on his left breast above the pocket. These wings, and nothing else, denote the qualified Pi They have to be earned, in the sense that they may not be worn until the airman has undergone a long and exacting course of training. The shoulder-badges denote nothing more than* members of the RNZ A F. A clerk or a cook who has never been off the ground is issued with shoulder-badges, but the “wings” on the left alone distinguish the qualified flying man. Observers, air-gunners, and wireless operators also have a distinguishing breast badge, when qualified but it is a one-winger affair, different from the outspread double wings of the pilot. It is said that so highly are the pilot’s wings regarded by the R.A.F. that they constitute the one distinction in the Forces which must be earned and cannot be bestowed. The King himself had to qualify for the wings which he wears when m the uniform of an air-marshal. Not all officers of the R.A.F. are flying men. Thus an officer with die rank of “pilot officer,” or “flying officer” or “flight lieutenant” may never have been in the air at all. His j 0.3 may be that of a stores control officer, an accountant, or an engineer. Such titles are only those of the rank. A man with the rank of “pilot officer” whose left breast is bare of the coveted wings may be recognised at once as a ground officer. Much favourable comment has been provoked by . the appearance of the “NeW Zealand” shoulder-badges.