When the Electronics Technician Chief Warrant Officer designation was established following World War II, it was one of several expansions of the Radio Electrician category; others included Communications Technician, Communications Supervisor, Aviation Electronics Technician, and Training Devices Technician. These were whittled down to just three CWO Technicians: Communications, Electronics, and Aviation Electronics, with officer designators of 764x, 766x, and 761x, respectively.
The insignias for these three CWOs were introduced in the 1951 edition of the U.S. Navy Uniform Regulations. For a Chief Aviation Electronics Technician, a winged helium atom with two revolving electrons (denoted by stars) was used—the same as the specialty mark for Sailors in the Aviation Electronics rating. Chief Communications and Electronics Technicians, on the other hand, shared the same insignia: four zig-zag bolts of lightning.
With the overhaul of the CWO and LDO programs in the mid-1970s, the CWO Electronics Technician designator of 766 became divided into 718x for Surface Electronics Technicians and 7828 for Submarine Electronics Technician; Communications Technician was changed to 719x. With this change, the insignia for Electronics Technician was changed to what essentially is the Aviation Electronics Technician symbol, only minus the wings and with the two stars in the electron orbits in different locations.
After the Communications Technician designator of 719x was disestablished, its insignia was used for Information Systems Technicians.
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