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Army creates badge for non-infantry soldiers who participate in combat
And prolly long overdue. I'll let you milfolk tell me if you agree...pictures due next week.After 60 years of debate, Army officials have finally decided to create a badge for non-infantry soldiers that recognizes their direct participation in ground combat. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker presented the new Close Combat Badge, or CCB, to a cadre of senior officers Friday, during a regularly scheduled meeting of four-star Army generals, according to Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army personnel spokesman. The new badge will be the equivalent of the Army's Combat Infantry Badge, which was created in 1943. The CIB, in the form of a rifle surrounded by a wreath, is reserved for infantry and Special Forces soldiers only. The Close Combat Badge will be awarded to soldiers with military occupational specialties in armor, the cavalry, combat engineering, and field artillery. Officers must have a branch or specialty recognized in Army regulations as "having a high probability to routinely engage in direct combat." The CCB will be presented only to soldiers who are engaged in active ground combat, moving to contact and destroy the enemy with direct fire. All soldiers are allowed to wear their unit patch on their right shoulder as a "combat patch" after spending 30 days in an authorized combat theater. While prestigious, however, the wear of this unit patch as a combat designator does not necessarily indicate that the wearer was involved in direct ground fighting. That is the purpose of the Combat Infantry Badge and a Combat Medical Badge, which is reserved for Army, Navy and Air Force medics. These were the only two Army symbols that indicate that the wearer has come under direct enemy fire. Posted by: Seafarious 2005-02-15 |
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