Missile Badge 3D print model

The Missile Badge is a military decoration of the United States Air Force which was first created on 23 May 1958.[1] The pocket rocket badge recognizes those commissioned officers and enlisted personnel of the US Air Force who have qualified as missile personnel (both TAC and SAC (now AFGSC)) that have been trained in the maintenance or launching of land-based and air-launched nuclear weapons under the direction of the National Command Authority. Originally known as the Missileman Badge, the Missile Badge later became known as the Missileer Badge or more informally the Pocket Rocket and is still often referred to by this name. Following its creation in 1958, the badge came in only one style. In 1963 the name was changed to the Missileman Badge and the three levels of Basic, Senior and Master were added. Although primarily issued to Atlas, Titan I/Titan II, Minuteman I/II/III and Peacekeeper missile crews of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), it was also issued to Tactical Air Command (TAC) Matador and Mace missile crews of the 1960s and Gryphon Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM) crews of the 1980s and early 1990s. The badge, at all 3 levels, was also awarded to Air Defense Command personnel maintaining and on launch crews of both the BOMARC A/B and the Thor in the 1960s and 1970s.[2] In the late 1980s, this badge was redesignated as the missile maintenance insignia while a new version bracketed by an oak wreath became the missile operations badge.

By 1992, all USAF tactical missiles were retired or in the process of being retired. The same year, SAC was inactivated and its ICBM force briefly transferred to the newly created Air Combat Command (ACC) before being transferred again to the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). In 2004, the Air Force Space Command Commander, General Lance Lord, announced the introduction of a new space badge. The new combined Space and Missile Operations Badge was informally known as spings (SPace wINGS). The new badge was no longer limited to pure space and missile operators or maintainers, but was also awarded to those in Air Force Specialty Codes (AFSCs) 61XX, 62XX and 63XX who performed space/ICBM acquisition duties, even if they were non-operational in nature.