of an Airplane Observer necessitated the redesign of the Observer Badge with a corresponding change in the eligibility criteria. On 20 February 1940 the rating was changed to that of Combat Observer, followed by redesignation as Aircraft Observer on 4 September 1942. Note that bombardiers that used the top secret SHORAN also received the Observer Badge. They sat midship, where the radio operator would normally sit, since they used an electronic not optical bombsight. By the time of the United States' entry into the Second World War, three Observer Badges were authorized by the Army Air Forces. The first was the Combat Observer Badge: in appearance an Aviator Badge with a large 'O' in the center. For Balloon Observers, a separate badge was created: the Observer Badge augmented with a balloon insignia. The third and final version of the Observer Badge was the Technical Observer Badge, an Aviator Badge with a T and O motif in the center. The Technical Observer Badge was primarily awarded to flight engineering personnel assigned to assist the flight engineer. United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard The Naval Aviation Observer Badge was first created in 1922, awarded to navigators and other support personnel on naval aircraft. The original badge was based on the design of the Naval Aviator badge, but with a single wing on the left, and with the anchor surmounted by an "O" rather than a shield. In 1927 this insignia was superseded by a new device, identical to the Naval Aviator's wings, but in silver rather than gold. This in turn was replaced by a gold insignia with a center device of a silver anchor within a silver circle, used from 1929 to 1968. For a brief period starting in 1945, the Secretary of the Navy approved distinct insignia for Naval Aviation Observers with Navigation, Radar, Tactical, and Aerology specializations. These were abolished in favor of the standardized gold insignia/silver anchor/silver circle design. In 1966 a new insignia was instituted, and by 1968 the Naval Aviation Observer Badge was replaced by the Naval Flight Officer Badge. However, in lieu of being totally discontinued, the criteria for the Naval Aviation Observer insignia was modified again and granted to non-pilot/non-NFO aviation mission specialists such as in-flight Meteorologists or for Naval Intelligence or Cryptology officers who regularly fly as crew on selected naval aircraft. In this form the Naval Observer Badge is still