Photo By Maj. Leslie Reed | Oregon Army National Guard Spc. Richard A. Ballentine, with 2nd Battalion, 162nd...... read more read more
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CAMP ROBERTS, CALIFORNIA – The heat was nearly as intense as the competition itself. More than 100 Oregon Army National Guard Soldiers from both 1st Battalion, 186th Infantry Regiment, and 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry Regiment, of the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, began the Expert Infantryman Badge (EIB) event during their annual training at Camp Roberts, California, July 17-21. Only six successfully completed the demanding five-day course, earning the prestigious and coveted award.
The EIB was originally started in 1944 and recognizes infantrymen who have proven themselves as professionals in their job through their proficiency in more than 45 critical infantry tasks, done to standard, over a five-day period. Only infantry Soldiers who are in the 18 or 11-series military occupational specialties (MOS) in the U.S. Army, U.S. Army Reserves and Army National Guard are eligible to apply to participate in an EIB event.
The Soldiers are first evaluated on the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT). Attrition rates throughout the EIB course are extremely high and analysis of units that have been tested under the current policy and measures regulation (PAM dated January 4, 2016) conclude that more than 40 percent of candidates don’t make it past the APFT. Soldiers are required to score a minimum of 80-points per each event, the difficulty is doing the push-ups to standard.
Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Ash, the only Soldier to go “true blue” (completing every task to standard without using his one allotted re-test) believes strongly in “making yourself better every day … continual self-improvement.”
“Back in April, I had a 230 PT score,” said Ash. “That wasn’t good enough for me. I wanted to be higher. I needed 80 in each event to test for EIB. So, I started training in April and just kept going and going. Focusing on push-ups, sit-ups and two-mile run and I got to the point where a week prior to this competition I went and scored a 290.”
He said seeing the concrete evidence of improvement helped motivate him to continue to better himself, “I already know that I am doing better now, how much better can I get in a month from now, a year from now? Two years from now? Continual self-improvement!”
By day three, the few remaining Soldiers who participate in the individual testing stations account for another 75 percent of candidates that wash out. Soldiers were tested on both day and night land navigation. Then they were evaluated on weapons systems, medical/first aid, patrolling skills, a 12-mile ruck march, and a culminating event known as “Objective Bull.”
After crossing the finish line of the 12-mile ruck march, candidates immediately began the 100-meter “Objective Bull” course where they had to cover, treat and stabilize a simulated casualty. The Soldiers then load the casualty onto a stretcher and move them 25-meters to a casualty collection point (CCP). Objective Bull was added to the EIB schedule beginning in December 2015, and is named after Tech. Sgt. Walter Bull, who earned the first EIB in 1944.
All of the cadre that oversee the event are EIB recipients themselves. The Oregon Army National Guard had approximately 70 EIB recipients before the event at Camp Roberts, but now has 76 with this year’s newest inductees.
As the lead plans and operations noncommissioned officer for the EIB event, Master Sgt. Geoffrey Miotke said he sees “every gamut of emotion” throughout the course of the five-day event.
“A lot of anxious, young infantrymen; then more scared infantrymen; and then a little more panicked infantrymen as they go through the process and they start receiving ‘No-Gos’ and can no longer compete or finish their run,” Miotke said. “The excitement builds back up with those that are continuing on.”
Staff Sgt. Tyler Brown, assigned to Delta Company, 2-162nd Infantry Battalion, and a 2011 EIB recipient, worked as a grader on three different individual testing stations and explains, “the really hard ones (lanes) are the ones where there were a number of steps to do in sequence.”
One of the EIB recipients to successfully complete this year’s course, Capt. Ryon Skiles, Alpha Company commander, 1-186th Infantry Battalion, agreed, “The lanes with the most tasks in them, that you have to do in sequence, were the most difficult. Those are the ones you really have to memorize and get your rhythm on.”
Skiles said the course certainly has no shortage of low points, “I’m not perfect, I actually double No-Go’d the first day [of individual testing]. They call that ‘blade running’ and that’s what I did for the next 22-stations straight, either I passed or I would be out.”
Not everyone participating was so lucky.
Brown reflects, “I think it says something about a person when they can fail, but stay on their feet to do it again. We kept telling them, ‘Hey, you made it until day two or day three of testing, you’re easily more skilled than 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 percent of the Soldiers out here, so keep your head high and try again next time.”
But the high points were unforgettable, recalls Skiles.
“The high was definitely mile eight on the ruck march,” he said. “We turned around and they (cadre) handed us a token, which was the actual EIB itself. And there’s no failing from there.”
In order to be successful Miotke believes, “you have to have a lot of discipline, you have to have a high degree of motivation, and you must be physically fit.”
Skiles agrees, challenging other units not only for the next time the EIB course is offered, but with their regular yearly training.
“One of the biggest things that knocked people out was the APFT, so ensure that your APFT is good and you’re doing it to standard,” he said.
The six recipients of this year’s EIB event were Sgt. Glen Christensen, Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Ash, and Capt. Ryon Skiles, all with the 1-186th Infantry Battalion; and Spc. Richard Ballentine, 1st Lt. Kevin Johnson, and 1st Lt. Matthew Shepergerdes, all with 2-162nd Infantry Battalion.
| Date Taken: | 08.21.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 09.19.2016 13:00 |
| Story ID: | 209980 |
| Location: | CAMP ROBERTS, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 304 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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