There may have been more than one episode but I know the USMC aviator who drank his wings back in about 1973. He was an ROTC graduate from Holy Cross and got winged as a Marine Corps helicopter pilot. He was a real wild man. He showed up late for his "overboost" as it was called and did not realize his wings were in the mug full of various kinds of alcohol. He slammed the drink and only then realized that he had swallowed his wings. He went to NAMI in Pensacola where they X-Rayed and saw the wings in his stomach. They must have made it down the esophagus due to his being able to chug beer easily. They "passed" while he was enroute to his new duty station at MCAS Tustin, CA. His name was Hillary Rentz. Great guy who was my classmate at Holy Cross and ended up as my advanced Helo instructor at HT-18 when I later went into the Corps.