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Item:Rare Vintage "Ancient & Honorable Order of Turtles" Winged Lapel Pin
This vintage Turtle Club pin represents one of the more colorful and fascinating traditions associated with America's early astronauts and the Project Mercury era of the 1960s.
The organization, commonly known as the Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles and later appearing within the space program as the Interstellar Association of Turtles, had its beginnings among American military pilots during World War II. Built around camaraderie, humor and practical jokes, the tradition followed military aviators into the test-pilot community and became particularly well known during the early years of America's manned space program. Members of NASA's astronaut and aerospace community participated, and original Turtle memorabilia associated with the Mercury era is today collected alongside other early space-program artifacts.
One of the most memorable Turtle Club stories occurred during astronaut Walter "Wally" Schirra's historic Mercury-Atlas 8 flight aboard Sigma 7 on October 3, 1962. Only minutes into the mission, fellow Mercury astronaut Deke Slayton, serving as communicator on the ground, unexpectedly asked Schirra over the radio, "Are you a Turtle?" It was a deliberately mischievous question because every initiated Turtle was expected to respond with the club's traditional answer: "You bet your sweet ass I am."( which is abbreviated on this pin!)Failure to give the proper response meant owing the questioning "Turtle" a drink.
Schirra was thousands of feet above the Earth, accelerating toward orbit, with his communications potentially being heard by NASA personnel and the listening public. Rather than broadcast the colorful response to the world, Schirra announced that he was switching to his spacecraft's onboard voice recorder and gave the required answer there instead. Mission Control immediately acknowledged that they had been trying to catch him. The exchange became one of the classic examples of the humor and close-knit test-pilot culture that existed among America's original astronauts even during the extraordinary seriousness of Project Mercury.
The Turtle tradition continued beyond Mercury into the later Gemini and Apollo years. Schirra himself remained closely associated with it, and surviving Turtle membership cards connected to him are preserved today by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, which describes the Interstellar Association of Turtles as a "space-aged update" of the earlier military pilots' tradition.
For collectors of early American spaceflight, military aviation, NASA, Project Mercury and astronaut memorabilia, original period Turtle pins are an unusual tangible connection to this lesser-known side of space-program history. Unlike equipment formally issued by NASA, these pins represent the personal culture and camaraderie of the pilots, engineers and astronauts who helped usher in the Space Age.
A wonderful conversation piece with an entertaining history, and an interesting collectible from the world surrounding America's pioneering Mercury astronauts. The cool double-turtle / mating plus wings design make this pin even MORE special and rare. Some pins only featured one turtle, and others had slightly different designs. The thinking of some collectors is that there were different ranks within the Turtle Club, and some of these may denote such, but it is not super clear or proven still. The group was very not formal in regards to it not being a sanctioned NASA organization by any means.
Details:
Design: Rare double-turtle / mating turtles design with extended wings and "YBYSAIA" ("You Bet Your Sweet Ass I Am") stamped on the lower shell.
Era: Circa 1950s–1960s (Mercury Space Program / Post-WWII Aviation Era).
Condition: Excellent vintage condition with strong gold-tone luster. Includes original period ball-top clutch fastener back.
Markings: Unmarked back (Gold-tone / Gilt finish).
Dimensions: Approx. 1" wide span across wings.
Historical Context:The "Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles" originated among WWII military pilots and became famous and more wide reaching during Project Mercury when astronaut Wally Schirra answered the secret Turtle password from orbit during his 1962 Sigma 7 flight. The winged variant reflects the club's deep roots in military aviation and flight crew culture.
