A Story of Badges

Just what the U.S. Army doesn't need. . . yet another badge.

What am I talking about? Well this:

In conjunction with the U.S. Army's 244th Birthday, the Army announced a new proficiency badge today, called the Expert Soldier Badge.

The ESB is designed to improve lethality, recognize excellence in Solder combat skills and increase individual, unit and overall Army readiness. The ESB is the equivalent of the Expert Infantry Badge and Expert Field Medical Badge but for all other military occupational specialties in the Army. Commanders will soon be able to use the badge to recognize Soldiers who attain excellence in physical fitness and marksmanship and a high standard of expertise in land navigation and performing warfighting tasks. 

"The ESB will be an important component of increasing Soldier lethality and overall readiness to help achieve the vision for the Army of 2028," said Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel A. Dailey. "The EIB and EFMB have supported the Infantry and medical fields with distinction, ensuring their Soldiers maintain critical skills, while recognizing the very best among them. The ESB will achieve the same for the rest of the Army." 

The Army will implement the ESB in early fiscal year 2020, with the standards and regulation to be finalized by September 2019. Earning the badge will test a Soldier's proficiency in physical fitness, marksmanship, land navigation and other critical skills, and demonstrates a mastery of the art of soldiering. 

The ESB training and testing will be extremely challenging, mission-focused, and conducted under realistic conditions. Those in the Infantry, Special Forces, and Medical career management fields are not eligible for the ESB.

"Like the EIB and EFMB, the ESB test will be a superb venue for individual training in units and the badge will recognize a Soldier's mastery," said Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, commanding general, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. "And it will be just as tough to earn as the EIB and EFMB because the Soldier will have to demonstrate fitness, weapons proficiency, navigation and warrior task skill at the expert level."

Standards for the ESB are still being refined but they will not be adjusted for age, gender or any other criteria. The test will share about 80 percent of the same warrior tasks as the EIB and EFMB, and is designed so it can be administered alongside and together with them. Brigade commanders will decide if and when to schedule the test so it best fits their training schedules.

Under the ESB test process, Soldiers will demonstrate mastery of individual skills through different evaluations over a five-day period. The standards for the ESB place candidates under varying degrees of stress that test their physical and mental abilities as they execute critical tasks to an established set of standards. 

To qualify to take the ESB test, Soldiers must pass the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT), qualify as "Expert" on the M4/M16 rifle and be recommended by their chain of command.

The test itself consists of another ACFT, day and night land navigation, individual testing stations, and culminates with a 12-mile foot march. ESB test stations include warrior tasks laid out in the ESB regulation and may also include five additional tasks selected by the brigade commander from the unit's mission essential task list. Example tasks include:

 React to an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) Attack 

 Construct Individual Fighting Positions

 Search an Individual in a Tactical Environment 

 Employ Progressive Levels of Individual Force 

 Mark CBRN-Contaminated Areas

"We worked tirelessly on the ESB to ensure we got it right," said Command Sgt. Maj. Edward W. Mitchell, Center for Initial Military Training Command. "We wanted to provide commanders the opportunity to recognize their top Soldiers who have met the highest standard of performance in physical fitness, warfighting tasks and readiness."

Each ESB task will be evaluated on a "go" or "no-go" basis. Pass rates during the ESB pilot testing were similar to that of the EIB and EFMB.

"The ESB is all about increasing the readiness of our Army. It will provide commanders outside the Infantry, Special Forces and medical communities the opportunity to recognize Soldiers who best demonstrate excellence in their fields," said Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy A. Guden, TRADOC Command Sergeant Major.

"This is not a badge to award so that the entire Army now has an 'expert' badge to wear. As it is now, not every Infantryman or Special Forces Soldier earns the EIB and not every medic earns the EFMB. Keeping with the same mindset, this is a badge to award to those who truly deserve recognition as an expert in their career field; for those who have achieved a high level of competence and excellence in their profession."

The U.S. Army has gotten as bad about badges as the Boy Scouts.

Okay, that's pretty harsh. . . if true.

Now, for the uninitiated, this device is a badge.  It's not a medal, or an award per se.  It's something your receive to reflect a qualification.

And that's the problem. At this point, the Army has arrived at a point at which its been headed for some time.  It's handing out badges for simply being a soldier. That way the many soldiers who aren't combat solders don't have to feel bad about it.

Army Wound Ribbon of 1917.

Up until 1943 the Army didn't issue badges of this type at all.  It did issue awards of various types. . medals, campaign ribbons, etc., but not badges as a rule.  The World War One "wound chevron", worn by solders who had been wounded in combat, was perhaps a bit of an exception.  That device replaced the Wound Ribbon of 1917, and was authorized for wear until 1932 when it was replaced by the Purple Heart.  A person can, and perhaps should, debate whether that replacement was a wise decision, as while being wounded is horrible, a medal was traditionally awarded for valor, and being wounded isn't ipso factor necessarily valorous.  It's bad any way you look at it, and that is worth noting, and most Western armies have at least since that time period.

Army Wound Chevron

Overseas stripes were similar and came in at the same time.  Prior to that the Army didn't issue anything at all for overseas service.  Starting in the Great War, however, soldiers earned a stripe or bar to be placed on the uniform for certain periods of overseas service, recognizing the hardship that entailed.  It's notable that this hardship was really only regarded as such, however, once a large conscript U.S. Army was in place.  Prior to that, as long as the Army was all volunteer, it was regarded as notable.

Indeed, prior to World War One there weren't any badges or related devices issued by the Army. . . or any of the other services, at all.

The first real badge of the type we're discussing came about in 1943 with the Combat Infantryman Badge.  That badge, which is still around, came about due to a real evolution in the U.S. Army between 1918 and 1941.  As late as the Great War it was simply assumed that your chances of being a combat soldier, if you were in the Army, were so high that it wasn't noteworthy.  By World War Two, however, the Army had evolved to where, contrary to the way we imagine it, most soldiers were no longer combat troops. . . by a long margin.

Combat Infantryman Badge.

In that new environment the soldiers who really got the sharp end of the stick, the infantrymen, were now regarded as sufficiently unique that they deserved something recognizing that status, a recognition with which I fully agree, but which I must note at the same time means that almost every soldier of prior eras was sort of slighted in a way.  In we look at the Army of 1916-18, or of 1898, or of 1860-65, there were vast numbers of combat infantrymen.  Indeed, most soldiers up until some point in that time frame were infantrymen.  By 1940, that was no longer true, and being in that unenviable situation was recognized as both unique and horrific, and deserving of a badge.  It likely was, but that reflected an interesting evolution.

The award of a badge followed a bit of a trend that was already ongoing in that there were now specialist in service whereas there had not been previously. That is, prior to World War One, infantrymen were infantrymen, artillerymen were artillerymen, etc.  There were elite units in some cases, but not whole elite military occupations that were refinements of other fields.  That came to an end, however, with aircraft.

Army jump wings indicating that the soldier wearing the wings is qualified on a parachute.

Flying an airplane was so unique and required such skill that it soon qualified the person who could do it to wear pilots wings.  This makes perfect sense and all services adopted the practice.  When developments in aircraft allowed, by World War Two, for airborne infantry, first for those qualified for parachute operation, and then later for glider infantry as well (a truly dangerous and somewhat forgotten aspect of the airborne).  Jump wings came first, followed in 1944 by glider wings.

Army glider wings.

This evolved fairly rapidly to where there were additional specialized wings for combat jumps and the like, which also makes some sense.

It's at this point, where the story begins to get a little off track.

When the Army authorized the Combat Infantryman Badge in 1943, it also authorized the Expert Infantryman Badge, a badge simply for qualifying as expert in the military specialty.   The qualifications for the badge are real, but what was going on in the background of this was a tacit acknowledgment that not only were most American soldiers not infantrymen, but that most didn't want to be infantrymen either.  Something was being done to try to encourage them, basically, for drawing the short end of the stick.

 Army Expert Infantryman Badge.

I've personally always admired the badge, but the oddities of it have always struck me as well, as I was an artilleryman, which is another combat MOS.  For guys in the artillery, or the cavalry, or armor, or. . . you get the point, it always seemed odd that there was a CIB and the AEI when we, on the other hand, could be expected to be in combat too but not get any badge.

This was particularly the case for those holding the cavalry MOS during World War Two, as they sometimes fought as infantry and didn't qualify for the badge.  Of course, many fought as armored cavalrymen and no armored soldier, no matter how dangerous the occupation was, qualified for a badge.  The really raw deal, however, was for medics, who occupied an extremely dangerous position but weren't infantrymen so they received no badge.  Indeed, while they had briefly qualified for it during World War Two, the qualification was withdrawn out of the fear that they'd be captured wearing it and not accorded non combatant status.

That was ultimately addressed by the Combat Medic Badge, which came into existence in January 1945.

Combat Medic Badge.

Again, I think the CMB is a real badge and one that I'd not care to be in a position to wear myself.  Not too surprisingly, however, it followed the evolution of the CIB and in 1965 there came to be the Expert Field Medical Badge.

Army Expert Field Medical Badge.

Recognizing that there are a lot of troops who get into combat action who aren't infantrymen, in 2001, there came to be the Combat Action Badge.  It's like the CIB, but for troops who aren't in the infantry.

Army Combat Infantry Badge.

And now, of course, following the inevitable evolution of badges, we now have the Expert Soldier Badge.

Army Expert Soldier Badge.

Well, that's going too far in my view.

Indeed, there's been a real expansion of awards in general in the Army since World War Two.  And the Army isn't alone in this, the Navy has a plethora of badges as well.

Well, as an old Guardsmen, I'm probably in no position to criticize the Army on this, but I'm going to anyhow.  Some of these badges, such as those for qualifying for unique skills, such as being in the airborne, I get and feel to be worthwhile.  And the ones reflecting combat. . . well combat is unique and I get that as well.  But just being well trained in your occupation. . . nah.  That's awarding you for what you ought to be striving for anyhow, and if you are really good at it, that should be reflected in some other fashion.  Not a badge.

Indeed, at this point, I'd eliminate all the Expert badges.  And I'm not too certain that it isn't my view that if there's going to be "combat" badges, that ought to be down to just two.  Medics still deserve their own, no matter what.  And for that matter, I'd actually keep the Combat Infantryman Badge around as well.

But I'd leave it at that.