Obsolete badges of the United States military are a number of U.S. military insignia which were issued in the 20th and early 21st centuries. After World War II many badges were phased out of the United States armed forces in favor of more modern military badges which are used today.
A limited number of badges were also issued in the 19th century. The oldest military badge on record dates to the time of the American Revolutionary War. The following is a listing of obsolete U.S. military badges and the time period, or branch of service, to which such badges were specific.
A unique obsolete badge situation occurred with General of the Air Force Henry H. Arnold, who in 1913 was among the 24 Army pilots to receive the first Military Aviator badge, an eagle bearing Signal Corps flags suspended from a bar. Replaced in 1917 by the more conventional "wings" embroidered design (authorized as an oxidized silver badge in 1921), Arnold displayed both types on his uniform throughout his career. The original Military Aviator design can be seen in pictures of him in uniform.
Read more about Obsolete Badges Of The United States Military: Revolutionary War, 1913-1926, Army Air Forces, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Navy, Joint Service
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“Had it not been for you, I should have remained what I was when we first met, a prejudiced, narrow-minded being, with contracted sympathies and false knowledge, wasting my life on obsolete trifles, and utterly insensible to the privilege of living in this wondrous age of change and progress.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
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—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
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—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
“Who are we? And for what are we going to fight? Are we the titled slaves of George the Third? The military conscripts of Napoleon the Great? Or the frozen peasants of the Russian Czar? No—we are the free born sons of America; the citizens of the only republic now existing in the world; and the only people on earth who possess rights, liberties, and property which they dare call their own.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)