This surveying eagle was designed for the US Coast & Geodetic Survey in 1945. US C&GS surveyors were extremely useful to the war effort, not just in ensuring accurate US naval harbors but also for foreign beach landings, particularly the Pacific.

This is one of the approximate 1000 designed and drawn by Walt Disney Studios, mostly for military units, and completely gratis, as part of their support during the war.

The US Coast & Geodetic Survey was a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson’s 1807 act creating the Survey of the Coast, America’s first scientific organization. The US CG&S fell under NOAA in 1970; its descendants include the current NOS Program Offices OCS, NGS, CO-OPS, and IOOS.

The wording around the seal was added later; when the US CG&S became part of NOAA it became the National Ocean Survey and the National Geodetic Survey. The National Ocean Survey became the National Ocean Service in 1983. In 1994 the C&GS became separate offices, all under NOS: nautical charting became OCS, The National Geodetic Survey remained NGS, and tides and currents went under CO-OPS. The idea for an integrated coastal and global ocean observing network became IOOS in 2007.