Originally Posted by
TwoTunnels
So are the Sentinel AIAs wearing illegal flying badges?
The AE Flying Badge was the last one ever to get the proper Sovereign approval and was the one and only that Her Majesty approved. Her Queen’s Order 767 dated 10 Jan 1956 officially approved it. So technically any other that came after that has so far never had the proper approval - some have been subject to DCI/DINs but the Airborne Image Analyst (IA) Flying Badge has not even had that. All this detail is in Jeff Jefford’s excellent book.
As for the Flying Badge debate, it always reminds me of people who call aircraft or aeroplanes - “planes”. One of my early instructors did their bestto drill that out of me with “Planes? They’re for wood or where the rain falls in Spain...”. The Queen’s, or previously King’s, Regulations are the
de facto source for the naming of these as Flying Badges. APs are notoriously wrong, for example they state Airborne Imagery Analyst for an IA in AP3376, when it is Airborne Image Analyst. However, ask anyone on V(AC) Sqn and it is Airborne Image Analyst.
