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About Nigerian Air Force |
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Colours, Wings and Rank Structure |
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Colours |
As in any other military organisation, colours in the NAF have significance and
connotations. The NAF was presented the Nigerian National Regimental Colours and
its organisational Colours on 1 November 1976.
Subsequently the Tactical and Training Commands were presented with their Colours
on 21 November 1982 while the Logistics Command got its own on 27 April 1985.
The NAF Colour has a sky blue background with the national flag at the top left
edge. The NAF crest is imposed as an inset at the right edge of the flag. The sky
blue colour signifies the clear operating environment in the sky.
As for the Commands, the Colours with their insignia connote what the Command stands
for. Thus Tactical Air Command, which is the fighting arm that draws blood, has
red as its colour. The Training Command has a similar colour with the NAF, which
signify the clear blue sky in which NAF pilot training is conducted. The friendly
yellow colour of the Logistics Command signifies the sustained support of the logisticians
for operations. |
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Crew Wings |
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Nigerian Air Force Crew Wings NAF wings were first introduced in 1967, but these were only for pilots, as other crew categories did not exist at this time.
In 1983
however, new wings were introduced for all the seven aircrew categories i.e. pilots,
navigators, flight nurses, paratroopers, flight engineers, flight surgeons and loadmasters.
The pilot earns his flying wings immediately on completion of the primary and basic
flying training. Similarly, all other categories qualify to earn their wings on
attaining the prescribed specialist qualifications. The pilots being the only ones
that carry out the actual flying are the only category in the NAF that wear full
wings. All other categories wear half wings that are peculiar to their specialties.
The wings exist in two forms, the metallic bronze and the ceremonial.
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Working
Dress |
Service Dress |
Ceremonial
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Pilots |
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Navigators |
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Flt. Engineers |
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Flt. Surgeons |
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Flt. Nurses |
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Paratroopers |
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Loadmasters |
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Rank Structure and Badges of Rank |
Rank Structure and Badges of Rank As already noted, the NAF made its debut using
a similar rank structure as the NA. However on 1 April 1976, a new rank structure
was introduced for the NAF. The rank structure, which was modelled after that of
the Royal Air Force, has been in use since then. Different badges of rank exist
for each rank cadre from the youngest aircraftman/aircraftwoman who actually do
not have any rank, to the highly esteemed rank of the Marshal of the Air Force.
The badges of rank exist in the ceremonial and working dress forms.
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