They ceased being an authorized uniform item in 1978 but Wiki says they were awarded on a case by case basis afterwards without any citation. I distinctly remember a Naval Aviation News or like publication that had an article maybe 20 or more years ago about an NROTC unit in the southwest (University of New Mexico maybe?) that sort of semi-officially had some sort of ballooning program because they were near some big ballooning spot, my memory is pretty hazy about it and I may be getting the details wrong. As part of the program I think some of the instructors got the half wings, not sure how official that was though.
Holy crap, I found an article about the Navy Hot Air Balloon Team in Naval Aviation News from 1998! And I was right, at the time it was flown by the University of New Mexico's NROTC unit. Nothing about the half wings though, that may have been in another article....maybe. There is a Facebook page for the team too, can't look at it now though.
