Courtesy Photo | Sgt. Brooke Hendricks, with the 282d Army Band, has her Expert Soldier Badge pinned on...... read more read more
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Seventy-eight Soldiers earned expert skills badges during Fort Jackson’s E3B competition, held across the post, April 7-11.
The competition is a combination of three skills badge testing – the Expert Field Medical, Expert Infantryman, and Expert Soldier badges.
“It is without a doubt remarkable to see what the candidates committed over the last three weeks,” said 1st Sgt. Brandon MacKinnon, the chief instructor at the U.S. Army Drill Sergeant Academy.
“Congratulations on your ability, over the last three weeks to display an extreme level of grit through both adversity and challenges,” he said.
Candidates for the badges went through two weeks of training before being tested throughout the week. They were required to complete 30 critical tasks and could receive no more than two “no-goes.”
“For some of you it was an easy task, and for some it was your second, third or even fourth attempt at the prestigious badge,” he said. “It’s a testament to you as a warfighting Soldier, mastering the basic foundational skills of our Army to ensure we enhance our teams, squads, platoons, and even companies to move or maneuver across the battlefields to close in and destroy our enemy.”
The testing is notoriously difficult as roughly 40% of the 189 candidates who began the competition earned badges. Historically, under 50% of those who go through testing earn medals. Forty Soldiers would earn Expert Soldier Badges; 24 Expert Infantryman Badges and 14 Expert Field Medical Badges.
The Soldiers did exhibit their prowess and will now be looked to “coach, teach, mentor and lead the success of the next group of Soldiers trying to ear their respective badges,” MacKinnon said.
“I now charge each of you to be the stewards of the badge that your earned … “ he added.
The Soldiers showcased the “Army’s drive to be excellent across all warfighting functions,” MacKinnon said.
Each badge required individual, rigorous tests of the Warrior Task and Skills of each Soldier.
Each task tested involved numerous steps that had to be completed in order and in the given amount of time to receive a ‘GO’ and pass on to the next task- with some tasks having multiple steps.
The badges illustrate the Soldier’s competence and lethality.
| Date Taken: | 04.17.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.17.2025 11:02 |
| Story ID: | 495515 |
| Location: | FORT JACKSON, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 19 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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