Photo By Staff Sgt. John Todd | 1st Lt. Nicholas Schroeder, assigned to 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment reacts to...... read more read more
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Hohenfels, GERMANY -- 155 Soldiers throughout Europe participated in the Expert Infantry Badge (EIB) competition at Hohenfels Training Area, Germany Nov. 16-20.
The EIB is a badge designed to recognize infantry Soldiers who master warrior skills and tasks. The competition also measures a Soldier’s physical fitness, medical, and other related tasks. At the end of the week, only 50 competitors remained.
“The EIB shows the capability of the infantry Soldier,” said Sgt. 1st Class Caleb Duncan, cadre member and Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge of the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon lane. “The award carries considerable weight and can possibly help shape the future of the Soldier.”
The EIB was created during World War II by the U.S. War Department Oct. 27, 1943. The EIB is awarded only to U.S. Army Soldiers who hold infantry or special forces military occupational specialties; all other career fields can compete for the newly created Expert Soldier Badge. Special Forces Medical Soldiers can compete for the Expert Field Medical Badge.
All graders for the event are infantry Soldiers who have earned the EIB. This ensures the candidates are judged to standard.
“Other lanes, such as medical, and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear, have ‘augmented’ graders that are proficient in that specialty,” said Duncan. “However, an infantry Soldier monitors the assessment.”
The test consists of the Army Combat Fitness Test; day and night land navigation, a total of 30 individual testing stations on various warrior tasks and drills (including topics such as react to an improvised explosive device attack, and search of an individual in a tactical environment), and a 12-mile ruck march.
Staff Sgt. Christopher Curley, assigned to 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment and cadre member, said this event is tightly controlled, including issuance of the certifications.
“The certificates of completion for the event aren’t even issued here,” said Curley. “Like the Ranger certification course, all the signed hard copies and orders are on file back in Fort Benning, Georgia.”
Any infantry Soldier is welcome to participate in the competition.
“Your unit has to literally just give you the time to come down and participate,” said Duncan. “If you’re not ready, you’re going home.”
| Date Taken: | 11.21.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 12.04.2020 03:55 |
| Story ID: | 383538 |
| Location: | HOHENFELS, BAYERN, DE |
| Web Views: | 274 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Expert Infantry Badge: A Tradition of Proficiency, by SSG John Todd, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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