William F. Dean
William Frishe Dean Sr. was a United States Army major general during World War II and the Korean War. He received the Medal of Honor for his actions on July 20 and 21, 1950, during the Battle of Taejon in South Korea. Dean was the highest ranking American officer captured by the North Koreans during the Korean War. Born in Illinois, Dean attended the University of California at Berkeley before graduating with a commission in the US Army through the Reserve Officer's Training Corps in 1921. Rising up the ranks in the inter-war years, Dean worked a desk job in Washington D. C. for much of World War II before being transferred to the 44th Infantry Division which he commanded during the final days of the war, was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross. Dean is known for commanding the 24th Infantry Division at the outbreak of the Korean War. Dean led the division for several weeks in unsuccessful delaying battles against the North Koreans, before he led his division in making a last stand at Taejon.
During the confused retreat from that city, Dean was separated from his soldiers and badly injured, was captured by the North Koreans. He remained in North Korean custody near P'yongyang for the remainder of the war. After the end of the conflict, Dean returned to the United States to a hero's welcome, he lived a quiet life until his death. Dean was born on August 1, 1899, in Carlyle, Illinois to Charles Watts Dean, who worked as a dentist, Elizabeth Frishe Dean, of German descent. William Dean had two siblings, a brother named a sister named Elizabeth. Dean states in his biography his interest in the military began at a young age, upon seeing the United States Military Academy cadets in the 1904 Saint Louis Exposition performing military drill. During his childhood, Dean was interested in physical fitness, began weightlifting and running, activities he would continue throughout much of his life, his first jobs included selling magazines for spending money. Growing up in Carlyle, Dean was the town's main paperboy for The Saturday Evening Post.
After graduating from high school, Dean was rejected. He tried to enlist in the United States Army during World War I, but he was too young to do so without his parents' permission, his mother refused. Dean instead attended University of California at Berkeley studying pre-law. During this time, he took a variety of side jobs, including a stevedore at the San Francisco docks, a motorman, as a patrolman for the Berkeley Police Department, where he worked under police chief August Vollmer. Dean sought to attain a Doctor of Law degree but only completed a Bachelor of Arts degree from Berkeley in 1922 before joining the Army. Dean, a member of Berkeley's ROTC, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the California Army National Guard in 1921, before being given an active duty commission in the infantry on October 13, 1923, his first assignment was to the US 38th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Douglas, Utah. During this posting, Dean took an interest in polo ponies and training several of his own.
Dean was moved to the Panama Canal Zone in 1926, coaching boxing and basketball teams though not competing himself. Dean returned to Fort Douglas in 1929 before attending the United States Army Infantry School at Fort Benning and serving with a tank battalion before taking a course at the tank school. In 1932, Dean was assigned to the US 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division on the US West Coast. During this time, Dean served in the Civilian Conservation Corps as commander of Camp Hackamore in northern California. Dean was moved to the CCC headquarters in Redding, California. Following these appointments, Dean attended the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas before being assigned to a post on Oahu, Hawaii for two years. Following this stint, Dean attended the Armed Forces Industrial College at Fort McNair, Washington D. C. and the field officer's course at the Chemical Warfare school in the United States Army War College at Carlisle Barracks. Dean was promoted to captain in 1936, major in 1940.
Upon this promotion, Dean was assigned to Washington D. C. on the United States Department of War on the General Staff, first as a junior member as assistant secretary as executive officer in the Requirement Division of the Ground Forces Headquarters, a department concerned with the acquisition of new weapons and electronics, training literature. Following the United States' entry into World War II, Dean was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel in 1941, colonel in 1942, he was promoted to brigadier general in December of that year and made head of the Requirements Division in 1943. He held this office only before being assigned as assistant commander of the US 44th Infantry Division, under Major Generals James I. Muir and Robert L. Spragins beginning in late 1943; the division was to sail for the European Theater and Dean went with them despite being injured shortly before departure in a flamethrower accident which claimed the lives of two other soldiers. The 44th Infantry Division landed in France via Omaha Beach on September 15, 1944.
It trained for a month before entering combat on October 18, 1944, when it relieved the US 79th Infantry Division in the vicinity of Foret de Parroy, east of Luneville, to take part in the Seventh United States Army drive to secure several passes in the Vosges Mountains. The division was hit by a heavy counterattack by forces of Nazi Germany on October 25–26; the attack was repulsed and the 44th remained in the sector for several weeks. On November 13, 1944, it attacke
George Marshall
George Catlett Marshall Jr. was an American statesman and soldier. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff under presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman served as Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense under Truman. Winston Churchill lauded Marshall as the "organizer of victory" for his leadership of the Allied victory in World War II, although Marshall declined a final field leadership position that went to his protege U. S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower. After the war, as Secretary of State, Marshall advocated a significant U. S. economic and political commitment to post-war European recovery, including the Marshall Plan that bore his name. In recognition of this work, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. Born in Uniontown, Marshall graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1901. After serving as commandant of students at the Danville Military Academy in Danville, Marshall received his commission as a second lieutenant of Infantry in February, 1902.
In the years after the Spanish–American War, he served in the United States and overseas in positions of increasing rank and responsibility, including platoon leader and company commander in the Philippines during the Philippine–American War. He was the Honor Graduate of his Infantry-Cavalry School Course in 1907, graduated first in his 1908 Army Staff College class. In 1916 Marshall was assigned as aide-de-camp to J. Franklin Bell, the commander of the Western Department. After the United States entered World War I, Marshall served with Bell while Bell commanded the Department of the East, he was assigned to the staff of the 1st Division, assisted with the organization's mobilization and training in the United States, as well as planning of its combat operations in France. Subsequently, assigned to the staff of the American Expeditionary Forces headquarters, he was a key planner of American operations including the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. After the war, Marshall became an aide-de-camp to John J. Pershing, the Army's Chief of Staff.
Marshall served on the Army staff, commanded the 15th Infantry Regiment in China, was an instructor at the Army War College. In 1927, he became assistant commandant of the Army's Infantry School, where he modernized command and staff processes, which proved to be of major benefit during World War II. In 1932 and 1933 he commanded Georgia. Marshall commanded 5th Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division and Vancouver Barracks from 1936 to 1938, received promotion to brigadier general. During this command, Marshall was responsible for 35 Civilian Conservation Corps camps in Oregon and southern Washington. In July 1938, Marshall was assigned to the War Plans Division on the War Department staff, became the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff; when Chief of Staff Malin Craig retired in 1939, Marshall became acting Chief of Staff, Chief of Staff, a position he held until the war's end in 1945. As Chief of Staff, Marshall organized the largest military expansion in U. S. history, received promotion to five-star rank as General of the Army.
Marshall coordinated Allied operations in the Pacific until the end of the war. In addition to accolades from Churchill and other Allied leaders, Time magazine named Marshall its Man of the Year for 1943. Marshall retired from active service in 1945, but remained on active duty, as required for holders of five-star rank. From December 15, 1945 to January 1947 Marshall served as a special envoy to China in an unsuccessful effort to negotiate a coalition government between the Nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek and Communists under Mao Zedong; as Secretary of State from 1947 to 1949, Marshall advocated rebuilding Europe, a program that became known as the Marshall Plan, which led to his being awarded the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize. After resigning as Secretary of State, Marshall served as chairman of American Battle Monuments Commission and president of the American National Red Cross; as Secretary of Defense at the start of the Korean War, Marshall worked to restore the military's confidence and morale at the end of its post-World War II demobilization and its initial buildup for combat in Korea and operations during the Cold War.
After resigning as Defense Secretary, Marshall retired to his home in Virginia. He was buried with honors at Arlington National Cemetery. George Catlett Marshall Jr. was born into a middle-class family in Uniontown, the son of George Catlett Marshall Sr. and Laura Emily Marshall. Marshall was a scion of an old Virginia family, as well as a distant relative of former Chief Justice John Marshall; when asked about his political allegiances, Marshall joked that his father had been a Democrat and his mother a Republican, whereas he was an Episcopalian. Following his graduation from VMI, Marshall sat for a competitive examination for a commission in the United States Army. While awaiting the results, Marshall had accepted the position of Commandant of Students at the Danville Military Institute in Danville, Virginia. Marshall passed the exam and was commissioned a second lieutenant in February, 1902. Prior to World War I, Marshall received various postings in the United States and the Philippines, including serving as an infantry platoon leader and company commander during the Philippine–American War and other guerrilla uprisings.
He was schooled in modern warfare, including a tour at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas from 1906 to 1910 as both a student and an instructor. He was the Honor Graduate of his Infantry-Cavalry School Course in 1907, graduated first in his 1908 Army Staff College class. After another tour of duty in the Philippines, Marshall returned to
Badges of the United States Army
Badges of the United States Army are military decorations issued by the United States Department of the Army to soldiers who achieve a variety of qualifications and accomplishments while serving on active and reserve duty in the United States Army. As described in Army Regulations 670-1 Uniforms and Insignia, badges are categorized into marksmanship and special skill and foreign. Combat and Special Skill badges are further divided into five groups. A total of six combat and special skill badges are authorized for wear at one time on service and dress uniforms. Personnel may wear up to three badges above the ribbons or pocket flap, or in a similar location for uniforms without pockets. Personnel may only wear one combat or special skill badges from either group 1 or group 2 above the ribbons. Soldiers may wear up to three badges from groups 4 above the ribbons. One badge from either group 1 or group 2 may be worn with badges from groups 3 and 4 above the ribbons so long as the total number of badges above the ribbons does not exceed three.
Only three badges, to include marksmanship badges, can be worn on the pocket flap at one time. This total does not include special skill tab metal replicas. Personnel will wear the driver and mechanic badges only on the wearer’s left pocket flap of service and dress uniforms, or in a similar location on uniforms without pockets. Personnel may not attach more than three clasps to mechanic badges; the driver and mechanic badges are not authorized for wear on utility uniforms. The order of precedence for combat and special skill badges are established only by group. There is no precedence for combat or special skill badges within the same group. For example, personnel who are authorized to wear the Parachutist and Air Assault badges may determine the order of wear between those two badges; the 21st century United States Army issues the following military badges which are worn in conjunction with badges of rank and branch insignia. Combat Service Identification Badge Distinctive unit insignia Identification badges of the United States military Military badges of the United States Obsolete badges of the United States military Shoulder Sleeve Insignia Tabs of the United States Army Uniforms of the United States Army United States military beret flash Army Regulation 670-1: Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia Army Regulation 600-8-22: Military Awards Army Service Uniform - Ribbons Poster
Operation Gothic Serpent
Operation Gothic Serpent was a military operation conducted by United States special operations forces during the Somali Civil War with the primary mission of capturing faction leader Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The operation occurred in Somalia from August to October 1993 and was supervised by the Joint Special Operations Command; as part of the operation, the soldiers were deployed in a mission to arrest two of Aidid's lieutenants. That mission's result – executed under the command of Gothic Serpent – became known as the Battle of Mogadishu. In December 1992, U. S. President George H. W. Bush ordered the U. S. military to join the U. N. in a joint operation known as Operation Restore Hope, with the primary mission of restoring order in Somalia. The country was wracked by civil war and a severe famine as it was ruled by a number of faction leaders. Over the next several months, the situation deteriorated. On 20 January 1993, Bill Clinton, took office. In May 1993, all the parties involved in the civil war agreed to a disarmament conference proposed by the leading Somali faction leader, Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
The Somali National Alliance had been formed in June 1992. This alliance consisted of faction leaders across the country, operating under Aidid's authority, Aidid having declared himself Somalia's president. A great number of Somali civilians resented the international forces, leading many, including women and children, to take up arms and resist U. S. forces during fighting in Mogadishu. On 5 June 1993, one of the deadliest attacks on U. N. forces in Somalia occurred when 24 Pakistani soldiers were ambushed and killed in an Aidid-controlled area of Mogadishu. Any hope of a peaceful resolution of the conflict vanished; the next day, the U. N. Security Council issued Resolution 837, calling for the arrest and trial of those that carried out the ambush. U. S. warplanes and U. N. troops began an attack on Aidid's stronghold. Aidid remained defiant, the violence between Somalis and U. N. forces escalated. On 8 August 1993, Aidid's militia detonated a remote controlled bomb against a U. S. Army vehicle. Two weeks another bomb injured seven more.
In response, President Clinton approved the proposal to deploy a special task force, composed of 400 U. S. Army Rangers and Delta Force operators; this unit, named Task Force Ranger, consisted of 160 elite U. S. troops. They began a manhunt for Aidid. On 22 August, the force was deployed to Somalia under the command of Major General William F. Garrison, JSOC's commander at the time; the force consisted of: B Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment C Squadron, 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta A deployment package of 16 helicopters and personnel from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which included MH-60 Black Hawks and AH/MH-6 Little Birds. Navy SEALs from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group Air Force Pararescuemen and Combat Controllers from the 24th Special Tactics Squadron. In Mogadishu, the task force occupied an old hangar and construction trailers under primitive conditions; the force was subject to frequent mortar fire. During September, the force conducted several successful missions to arrest sympathizers and to confiscate arms caches.
The aircraft made frequent flights over the city to desensitize the public to the presence of military aircraft and to familiarize themselves with the city's narrow streets and alleys. On 21 September, the force captured Aidid's financier, Osman Ali Atto, when a Delta team intercepted a vehicle convoy transporting him out of the city. At 0200 on the 25th of September, Aidid's men shot down a Black Hawk with an RPG and killed three crew members at New Port near Mogadishu. Although the helicopter was not part of a Task Force Ranger mission, the Black Hawk destruction was a huge SNA psychological victory. On the afternoon of 3 October 1993, informed that two leaders of Aidid's clan were at a residence in the "Black Sea" neighborhood in Mogadishu, the task force sent 19 aircraft, 12 vehicles, 160 men to arrest them. During the mission, Private Todd Blackburn missed the rope while fast-roping from an MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, he fell 70 feet to the street below. The two Somali leaders were arrested.
The prisoners and Blackburn were loaded on a convoy of ground vehicles. However, armed militiamen and civilians, some of them women and children, converged on the target area from all over the city. Sergeant Dominick Pilla and a Somali combatant fired at the same time. Both were killed; the operation's commanders were stunned to hear that a soldier had been killed, as they expected no casualties during the operation. During the battle's first hours, a MH-60 Black Hawk, Super Six One, piloted by Cliff Wolcott, was shot down by a Somali combatant using a rocket-propelled grenade. Both of the pilots were killed. Another Black Hawk helicopter, Super Six Four, was shot down by an RPG fired from the ground. No rescue team was available, the small surviving crew, including one of the pilots, Michael Durant, couldn't move. Two Delta snipers — Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart provided cover from a helicopter, volunteered to secure the crash site. On their third try, they were given permission, both men aware that it would cost them their lives.
When they arrived, they attempted to secure the site, but Gordon was killed, leaving only Durant and Shughart. After ho
Citation
A citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source. More a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of acknowledging the relevance of the works of others to the topic of discussion at the spot where the citation appears; the combination of both the in-body citation and the bibliographic entry constitutes what is thought of as a citation. References to single, machine-readable assertions in electronic scientific articles are known as nanopublications, a form of microattribution. Citations have several important purposes: to uphold intellectual honesty, to attribute prior or unoriginal work and ideas to the correct sources, to allow the reader to determine independently whether the referenced material supports the author's argument in the claimed way, to help the reader gauge the strength and validity of the material the author has used.
As Roark and Emerson have argued, citations relate to the way authors perceive the substance of their work, their position in the academic system, the moral equivalency of their place and words. Despite these attributes, many drawbacks and shortcoming of citation practices have been reported, including for example honorary citations, circumstantial citations, discriminatory citations and arbitrary citations; the forms of citations subscribe to one of the accepted citations systems, such as the Oxford, Harvard, MLA, American Sociological Association, American Psychological Association, other citations systems, because their syntactic conventions are known and interpreted by readers. Each of these citation systems has its disadvantages. Editors specify the citation system to use. Bibliographies, other list-like compilations of references, are not considered citations because they do not fulfill the true spirit of the term: deliberate acknowledgement by other authors of the priority of one's ideas.
A bibliographic citation is a reference to a book, web page, or other published item. Citations should supply detail to identify the item uniquely. Different citation systems and styles are used in scientific citation, legal citation, prior art, the arts, the humanities. Citation content can vary depending on the type of source and may include: Book: author, book title, place of publication, date of publication, page number if appropriate. Journal: author, article title, journal title, date of publication, page number. Newspaper: author, article title, name of newspaper, section title and page number if desired, date of publication. Web site: author and publication title where appropriate, as well as a URL, a date when the site was accessed. Play: inline citations offer part and line numbers, the latter separated by periods: 4.452 refers to scene 4, line 452. For example, "In Eugene Onegin, Onegin rejects Tanya when she is free to be his, only decides he wants her when she is married". Poem: spaced slashes are used to indicate separate lines of a poem, parenthetical citations include the line number.
For example: "For I must love because I live / And life in me is what you give.". Interview: name of interviewer, interview descriptor and date of interview. Along with information such as author, date of publication and page numbers, citations may include unique identifiers depending on the type of work being referred to. Citations of books may include an International Standard Book Number. Specific volumes, articles or other identifiable parts of a periodical, may have an associated Serial Item and Contribution Identifier or an International Standard Serial Number. Electronic documents may have a digital object identifier. Biomedical research articles may have a PubMed Identifier. Broadly speaking, there are two types of citation systems, the Vancouver system and parenthetical referencing. However, the Council of Science Editors adds the citation-name system; the Vancouver system uses sequential numbers in either bracketed or superscript or both. The numbers refer to either endnotes that provide source detail.
The notes system may or may not require a full bibliography, depending on whether the writer has used a full-note form or a shortened-note form. For example, an excerpt from the text of a paper using a notes system without a full bibliography could look like: "The five stages of grief are denial, bargaining and acceptance."1The note, located either at the foot of the page or at the end of the paper would look like this: 1. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying 45–60. In a paper with a full bibliography, the shortened note might look like: 1. Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying 45–60; the bibliography entry, required with a shortened note, would look like this: Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth. On Death and Dying. New York: Macmillan, 1969. In the humanities, many authors use footnotes or endnotes to supply anecdotal information. In this way, what looks like a citation is supplementary material, or suggestions for further reading. Parenthetical referencing known as Harvard referencing, has full or partial, in-text, citations enclosed in circular brackets and embedded in the paragraph.
An example of a parenthetical reference: "The five stages of grief are denial, bargai
Joseph Stilwell
Joseph Warren Stilwell was a United States Army general who served in the China Burma India Theater during World War II. His caustic personality was reflected in the nickname "Vinegar Joe". Distrust of his Allies and a lack of resources meant, he famously differed as to strategy, ground troops versus air power, with his subordinate, Claire Chennault, who had the ear of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. General George Marshall, the Army Chief of Staff, acknowledged he had given Stilwell "one of the most difficult" assignments of any theater commander. Stilwell was born on March 1883, in Palatka, Florida, his parents were Mary A. Peene. Stilwell was an eighth generation descendant of an English colonist who arrived in America in 1638, whose descendants remained in New York up through the birth of Stilwell's father. Named for a family friend, as well as the doctor who delivered him, Joseph Stilwell, known as Warren by his family, grew up in Yonkers, New York, under a strict regimen from his father that included an emphasis on religion.
Stilwell admitted to his daughter that he picked up criminal instincts due to "...being forced to go to Church and Sunday School, seeing how little real good religion does anybody, I advise passing them all up and using common sense instead."Stilwell's rebellious attitude led him to a record of unruly behavior once he reached a post-graduate level at Yonkers High School. Prior to this last year, Stilwell had performed meticulously in his classes, had participated in football and track. Under the discretion of his father, Stilwell was placed into a post-graduate course following graduation, formed a group of friends whose activities ranged from card playing to stealing the desserts from the senior dance in 1900; this last event, in which an administrator was punched, led to the expulsions and suspensions for Stilwell's friends. Stilwell, having graduated, was once again by his father's guidance sent to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point, rather than Yale University as planned.
Despite missing the deadline to apply for Congressional appointment to the military academy, Stilwell gained entry through the use of family connections who knew President William McKinley. In his first year, Stilwell underwent hazing as a plebe that he referred to as "hell". While at West Point, Stilwell showed an aptitude for languages, such as French, in which he ranked first in his class during his second year. In the field of sports, Stilwell is credited with introducing basketball to the Academy, participating in cross-country running, as well as playing on the varsity football team. At West Point he had two demerits for laughing during drill. Stilwell graduated from the academy, class of 1904, ranked 32nd in a class of 124 cadets. In 1910, he married Winifred Alison Smith, they were the parents of five children, including Brigadier General Joseph, Jr. served in World War II, Vietnam. Stilwell taught at West Point, attended the Infantry Advanced Course and the Command and General Staff College.
During World War I, he was the U. S. Fourth Corps intelligence officer and helped plan the St. Mihiel offensive, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his service in France. Stilwell is remembered by his sobriquet, "Vinegar Joe", which he acquired while a commander at Fort Benning, Georgia. Stilwell gave harsh critiques of performance in field exercises, a subordinate – stung by Joe's caustic remarks – drew a caricature of Stilwell rising out of a vinegar bottle. After discovering the caricature, Stilwell pinned it to a board and had the drawing photographed and distributed to friends, yet another indication of his view of life was the motto he kept on his desk: Illegitimi non carborundum, a form of fractured Latin that translates as "Don't let the bastards grind you down."Between the wars, Stilwell served three tours in China, where he mastered spoken and written Chinese, was the military attaché at the U. S. Legation in Beijing from 1935 to 1939. In 1939 and 1940 he was assistant commander of the 2nd Infantry Division and from 1940 to 1941 organized and trained the 7th Infantry Division at Fort Ord, California.
It was there that his leadership style – which emphasized concern for the average soldier and minimized ceremonies and officious discipline – earned him the nickname of "Uncle Joe." Just prior to World War II, Stilwell was recognized as the top corps commander in the Army and was selected to plan and command the Allied invasion of North Africa. When it became necessary to send a senior officer to China to keep that country in the War, Stilwell was selected, over his personal objections, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his old friend, Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, he became the Chief of Staff to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, served as US commander in the China Burma India Theater, was responsible for all Lend-Lease supplies going to China, was Deputy Commander of South East Asia Command. Despite his status and position in China, he became involved in conflicts with other senior Allied officers, over the distribution of Lend-Lease materiel, Chinese political sectarianism and proposals to incorporate Chinese and US forces in the 11th Army Group.
Barbara W. Tuchman records that Stilwell was a lifelong Republican: "...he retained the family Republicanism and joined in the exhilarating exercise of Roosevelt-hating" and "At home Stilwell was a conventional Republican who shared the sentiments and adopted the tone of the Roosevelt-haters
United States Astronaut Badge
The United States Astronaut Badge is a badge of the United States, awarded to military pilots, naval flight officers, navigators/combat systems officers, flight surgeons, civilian pilots who have completed training and performed a successful spaceflight. A variation of the astronaut badge is issued to civilians who are employed with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as specialists on spaceflight missions, it is the least awarded qualification badge of the United States military. To earn an astronaut badge, a U. S. Air Force or U. S. Navy and Marine Corps officer must complete all required training and participate in a space flight more than 50 miles above the Earth; the U. S. Army has awarded the badge to officers. In the 1960s, the United States Department of Defense awarded astronaut badges to military and civilian pilots who flew aircraft higher than 50 miles. Seven USAF and NASA pilots qualified for the astronaut badge by flying the suborbital X-15 rocket spaceplane. American test pilots Michael Melvill and Brian Binnie were each awarded a commercial astronaut badge by the Federal Aviation Administration when they flew sub-orbital missions aboard the Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne rocket spaceplane.
All other men and women awarded the astronaut badge earned it travelling to space in non-winged rockets, the X-15, or the Space Shuttle. Each of the military services issues its own version of the astronaut badge, which consists of a standard aviation badge with an astronaut device centered on the badge's shield, or escutcheon; the United States Air Force and United States Army astronaut badges are issued in three degrees: Basic and command /master. The senior astronaut badge is denoted by a star centered above the decoration, while the command/master level is indicated by a star and wreath; the U. S. Air Force Astronaut Badge consists of a standard USAF aeronautical badge upon, centered the Astronaut Device; the Air Force does not consider Astronaut to be a separate rating from its six established rating badges, but as a "qualifier" to them, may only be awarded by the Air Force Chief of Staff after written application upon completion of an operational space mission. The rating of Observer is used for USAF Mission Specialists who have completed training but not a mission and are not otherwise aeronautically rated as a USAF pilot, RPA pilot, combat systems officer, air battle manager, or flight surgeon.
In 2007, the U. S. Air Force announced the opening of astronaut mission specialists positions to enlisted personnel who met certain eligibility requirements; these requirements include: Be on active duty in the U. S. Air Force. Be a United States citizen Have a minimum of a bachelor's degree in either engineering, biological science, or physical science, with 3 years experience. Have a current Class II Flight Physical Be between 62 and 75 inches tall. No enlisted astronaut badges are yet known to have been issued; the gold astronaut device is issued by the U. S. Army to Army aviators, flight surgeons, aircrew members that qualify as astronauts; the astronaut device is a gold shooting star and elliptical orbit, affixed over the shield of awarded Army aviation badges. Army astronauts that have yet to fly a mission and have not been awarded any aviation badge are awarded the army aviation badge. Once they have flown a mission, they are awarded the Astronaut Device, affixed to the shield of their army aviation badge.
The army astronaut device was approved on May 17, 1983. The black version of the device and its sew-on equivalent may be worn on the Army Combat Uniform, it is believed to be the rarest badge issued by the U. S. Army; the naval astronaut insignias are issued in a single degree to naval aviators and flight officers from the United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, United States Coast Guard, with officers of all three branches receiving their designations as aviators or flight officers through the naval aviation flight training program. All three branches wear the same insignia which consists of naval aviator insignia or naval flight officer insignia with a centered gold astronaut device. However, the Coast Guard only issues the naval flight officer version of the astronaut insignia to its astronauts. NASA has a civilian astronaut badge, issued to civilian personnel who participate in U. S. space missions. The U. S. Federal Aviation Administration grants commercial astronaut wings to commercial pilots who have performed a successful spaceflight.
Two people earned Commercial Wings in 2004, two other crews have been granted wings since 2018. The FAA Commercial Astronaut Wings design changed before the 2018 flights. In addition to the astronaut badge, worn on a military uniform, an astronaut pin is issued to all NASA astronauts, it is a lapel pin, worn on civilian clothing. The pin is issued in two grades and gold, with the silver pin awarded to candidates who have completed astronaut training and the gold pin to astronauts who have flown in space. Astronaut candidates are given silver pins but are required to purchase the gold pin at a cost of $400. A unique astronaut pin was made for NASA astronaut Deke Slayton in 1967, it was gold in color, like the ones given to astronauts who had flown, it had a small diamond embedded in the star. It was made at the request of the crew of the first manned mission of the Apollo
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