ID of This Badge Please - Poss Air Force?

[leigh kitchen]

Probably better posted in the Communist Forum, but I don't know what it is. Aquired in Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, Bosnia, but locals did'nt think it was Yugo.

[Dave Danner]

RV i PVO means Ratno Vazduhoplovstvo i Protiv Vazdusna Odbrana, or "Air and Air Defense Forces".

I don't know about SSR. The communist period forces were the RV i PVO SFRJ, SFRJ being the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, later changed to RV i PVO VJ, with VJ (Yugoslav forces) being what the JNA, Yugoslav People's Army, was renamed in the early 1990s.

But since it comes before "RV i PVO", SSR is probably an acronym for a subordinate command - judging by the cogwheel and hammer, a maintenance or technical command - or maybe a school.

[leigh kitchen]

Okay, thanks, so it does appear to be Yugo despite what a number ofYugo people told me.

[Valter Gorenc]

SSR, actually it's ŠSR (ShSR) menas Škola stručnih radnika = School of specialist workers. It's a badge of High school for technical workers (craftsmen) of air force, the school was (I believe) in Rajlovac near Sarajevo, where was a big education center of Air force (from high school to academies). This school profiled not technical NCO's (they had another school), but rather civilian speicalist workers who were employed in the air force.

Those people had a special status, called "Civilian persons in the service of armed forces", they fell (in certain extent) to military jurisdiction and had some of the rights and duties of military personell. They usually didn't wear uniform (except in the war and/or manouvers), but civilian clothes or military working clothes.

Regards, Valter

[leigh kitchen]

Thanks, i'd nevr have found that out.