Rockwell Standard merged with North American Aviation in 1967, becoming North American Rockwell. The name was changed to Rockwell International in 1973, and was swallowed up by Boeing in 1994 (?). Up to the merger of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas in 1996, the Company Formerly Known as Rockwell was called Boeing North American (BNA).

I'm pretty much completely confused about these pins, and it seems as if the style and years of service associated with the stones changed often. I'm certain of only two: This 20 year pin and this 25 year pin.

Rockwell International

These pins were awarded by Rockwell International (and perhaps earlier), and were awarded up until the merger with Boeing (and possibly a little after). There seems to be some evidence that the pin itself is worth 5 years, and each stone is worth an additional five years. Therefore, a fifteen year pin has two stones. Maybe. I have actually seen a pin that looks like the shown 15 year pin, but with no stones (ie, a plain "flare"). The stones are blue in these pins unless stated otherwise.

First Row -

• One blue stone. A 5 or 10 year pin.
• Two blue stones. A 10 or 15 year pin.
• One white stone.
• Two white stones.
• Two blue, one white stone.

Second Row -

• Not sure if the center stone on this one is white or blue.
• Four blue stones, 25 years.
• Two blue and two white stones. 25 or 30 year pin. It's possible that this is a 25 year pin, and I have been told that it is. However, I know that a 25 year pin can also have 4 blue stones as I had the opportunity to talk to a gentleman wearing one. I tend to think that this is a 30 year pin.

North American Rockwell

I believe these to be North American Rockwell pins. These come in two flavors: A smooth, unfinished background, and a black-enamelled textured or "hatched" background.

Note that former NAA employees had the choice of receiving a Rockwell-style or NAA-style service pin up until sometime in the early '80s (source: an NAA retiree of 48 years). It's entirely possible that this applied to only high-year pins, and they may just have been trying to eliminate an existing stock of service pins.

• 10 or 15 year pin?
• 15 or 20 year pin?
• 15 or 20 year pin variation. If fifteen, this all starts to make a bit of sense as they've run out of room for any more stones. Since there can't be four stones on this style pin, they'd have to switch to a different type of stone as follows:
• 20 year pin with a white stone and a textured background. At one time I thought this was a ten year pin, but have verified that it represents 20 years. See this set. I have seen one of these pins with no stone - Five years?

Others and Sets

The many variations of service pins awarded by the various incarnations of Rockwell make identification difficult, particularly when it comes to the Rockwell International vs. North American Rockwell styles. Some of the following pins are oddball variations I've run across, and while nifty, they really complicate things even more!

• Unknown year pin. The "dark" areas are a scanner artifact and are in fact very highly polished gold. The awardee does not remember how many years this represents. The maker was Tiffany, and it came in a pouch rather than a box.
• Unknown year pin of a unique style. Perhaps it's a very high-year pin?
• Five year pin from Rockwell Tools (now Delta). This company has nothing to do with Rockwell the aerospace company.

Set of Rockwell and NAA pins awarded to William Bendig. Mr. Bendig started with North American in Downey in 1953, moving to the Autonetics division in 1963 or '64. He retired in 1976.

• NAA 1yr - no marks
• NAA 3yr - 1/10 10K CTO (OC Tanner)
• NAA 5yr - 1/10 10K CTO
• NAA 10yr - 10K CTO
• NAA 15yr - 1/10 10K CTO
• Rockwell 20yr - 1/5 10K G.F. (no maker)

Mr. Bendig's Autonetics badge.

Another set of Rockwell pins awarded to William Bendig's son Dave. Dave Bendig started with Rockwell in Downey in 1975. Dave doesn't remember years of service represented by each pin, so we have to guess. He seems to be missing his 5 year pin, and he received no 25 year pin (not even the current crappy Boeing version). So I think we're looking at 10, 15, and 20 year pins.

• Flare style, one blue stone - 10 year pin. I'm pretty sure about this one as it fits in with the 25 year pin I'm certain of (pin = 5yrs, each stone = 5yrs). Also, a pin identical to this one but sans stone does exist, so this almost has to be a 10 year pin.
• Flare style, one white, two blue stones - 20 year pin? Hard to say with this one as it seems to violate what little I know both in number and type of stones. If a 25 year pin of this style has four blue stones, then a 20 year should have three blue stones. But this one has a white stone (which may or may not have any significance). The overall style seems to be in line with the 10yr above and therefore imply that the two are consecutive-issue, but it would be highly unusual if this were a lower-year value pin than the Tiffany pin below given the number and types of stones.
• Tiffany, one blue stone - By process of elimination, this would be a 15 year pin. Which really doesn't make any sense as there is only one stone. How then to represent 5 and 10 year pins of this style? The 5 year would have no stone, sure, and the 10 year could use a different type of stone (eg, red or green). But, while there are no rules, generally low number year pins use sapphires with the progression being blue, red, green, white. Or not. Basically, I have no idea what's going on here.

Set of Rockwell and NAA pins. There appear to be two Rockwell 20 year pins, but the three pins could also easily represent 20, 25, and 30 years. Who knows? The 1, 3 (green stone), 5 (red stone), and 15 year (3 red stones) NAA pins make sense, though the set is missing the NAA 10 year. The brown suede-like presentation box insert seen was typical for Rockwell service pins.