Navy V-5 Aviation Cadet

U.S. Naval Reserve Class V-5 — Naval Aviation Cadet (NavCad) Program · USN · 1942-1945

The Aviation Cadet Act of 15 April 1935 created Naval Reserve Class V-5, the pipeline that carried civilians and enlisted sailors from college classrooms to the cockpit; by war's end it had produced the bulk of the Navy's 61,658 wartime pilots. Cadets wore this shield — blue chief lettered NAVY, gold field, aviator's wings across the center, V-5 in the base — on garrison caps and uniforms through pre-flight at schools like Chapel Hill and Iowa City, then primary in the N2S Stearman, and finally the carrier qualification that earned them their commission and their wings of gold. This example comes from a private collection and was worn on a Navy commander's leather flight jacket: the mark of a man who kept the badge of where he started stitched to the jacket he flew in long after the gold wings replaced it.