The Marine Aerial Navigator Badge was originally approved by the United States Navy near the end of World War II for officers whom the Chief of Naval Personnel had had designated as Naval Aviation Observers (Navigation). A Circular Letter issued by the Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS) on March 31, 1945 described the new winged insignia, which featured crossed and fouled gold anchors behind a compass with a total of sixteen cardinal and intercardinal points.
But this fairly specialized insignia was fairly short-lived. Just under two years later, another BUPERS letter announced the abolition of the insignia, ordering all officers who’d previously worn it to wear the same badge as worn by Naval Aviation Observers.
The insignia was given new life in June of 1976, when the Marine Corps authorized the insignia for wear by USMC personnel who had qualified as Marine Aerial Navigators by completing training at the Marine Aerial Navigation School. Originally located at Camp Kearny in California during the early years of World War II, the Aerial Navigation School was temporarily disestablished in 1948; four years elapsed before it was reinstituted as part of the Airborne Operation School at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina.
The school was relocated several times over the next few decades, first to Naval Air Station Pensacola (1971), and then NAS Corpus Christi (1973) before achieving a somewhat permanent home at Mather Air Force Base in California in 1976. 1993 saw the school moved to Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, where it remained in operation until its decommissioning in 2004.