From: Ryan Gill (rmgill@mindspring.com)
Date: Thu Jun 02 2005 - 10:15:23 PDT
At 9:41 AM -0700 6/2/05, Jim Breneman wrote:
>I'm sorry I dont think I really got my point across in
>my e-mail last night. I was pretty out of it.
>I believe that EVERYONE in a combat zone deserves
>recognition. It was always my understanding that that
>is why the Army has anyone in an area where hostile
>fire pay or imminent danger pay is authorized is
>eligible to wear a combat patch on their right sleeve.
>Indicating they have been in a combat zone.
Yep, but the badge thing seems a bit weird...I've seen a number of active and reserve duty friends state that they do see a difference between each of the following:
1. Being in a Combat Zone (Iraq) and staying inside the wire the whole time. The closest they come to combat is when a mortar round explodes some distance away to no harmful effect. [REMF changes their shorts and goes back to the Starbucks for another latte.]
2. Being in a Combat Zone (Iraq) and performing missions outside the wire where you come under fire and return fire with the enemy while performing your secondary duty as a mechanic, truck driver, recovery vehicle operator, bitumus distribution equipment operator, etc. [I know a tiny chick that did this. She's a Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic and returned with a reverence for the M249 Saw, apparently she had significant cause to fire it from the roof of her HMMWV.]
3. Being in a Combat Zone (Iraq) and performing missions outside of your normal role (armor, artillery, etc) where you're operating as Infantry, with Infantry kicking down doors like infantry. [Like my friend John Atkinson]
4. Being in a Combat Zone (Iraq) and performing missions in your normal Infantry role. [CIB, Duh]
#4 gets you the CIB.
Used to be #3 would get you squat unless you did something special (silver star,etc). I'm not sure why fighting dismounted in a planned condition/role even though it's not your MOS doesn't earn you a CIB. Seems like it should. There's been a shortage of door kickers so they've deployed armor and artillery units to act as infantry that ride around in HMMWVs. I consider that to be Mounted or Motorized Infantry.
#2 obviously should earn something like the CCB. Armor fighting off dismounted infantry in support of door kickers or on a road sure sounds like close combat to me.
#1....what's the award for again?
>I think some people might be mistaking the CAB with
>the Close Combat Badge (CCB) which was proposed but
>was never approved and replaced by the CAB. The CCB
>was only award-able to combat arms and combat support
>MOSs. It is my understanding that the CAB is eligible
>to everyone who is in the theatre of operations.
They canned the CCB?
>The "door-kickers" arent the ones that I would have a
>problem being awarded this badge. It's the finance
>corps and food service soldiers who will, undoubtedly,
>apply for this award that bothers me.
That's what I've heard from a bunch of folks too. Mind you, if you're a PA journalist covering a story with some Infantry in a HMMWV and you end up using your M16 to get you and the other folks out of a fight when your HMMWV is damaged, I'm not sure why that's not at least CCB material if not CIB material (walks like a duck, talks like a duck...)
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