[HerrGlock]

You have to admit, that if for some reason you have to auto-rotate or ditch you will be on the ground possibly fighting for your survival. I don't know if you are flying attack or support, but finding yourself trying to defend yourself and the lives of surviving crewmembers is a very real possibility. Infantry skills pay off exponentially.

SERE. Level C.

I say that as an ex-grunt who went pilot. SERE actually gives you more of a clue than infantry basic.

 

[WTM45]

SERE. Level C.

I say that as an ex-grunt who went pilot. SERE actually gives you more of a clue than infantry basic.

I understand that very well. SERE IS appropriate training which fits the job description and needs of flight personnel.

I was referring moreso to those who have no survival/combat training at all outside of their Basic. Especially support and service roles.
Might save lives, and better prepare the unprepared.

 

[JBarbaresi]

this thread took an interesting turn. it started out as a ***** session about an award that has no affect on your own individual accomplishments, and it turned into a "my dick is bigger than yours" bragging competition.

why does anyone care if there's a point behind the CAB or the CIB or how people earn them? does it really change anything? i mean really, anything?

and last time i checked the infantry couldn't do its job without the support of all the soft skills and POGs out there, and vice versa. instead of hating because of a stupid badge that they or you may or may not have earned, be glad they are there to fix your vehicles, deliver your fuel, collect intelligence, make your coffee, or contribute in whatever way they are willing or able. the military doesn't function with out some level of sacrifice from everyone involved.

 

[John43]

I was Navy at Danang airbase TET of 68 and they pounded us with 120mm's. Talked to one of the guys forty years later and they gave it to him, he was career. Does being hit three nights in a row qualify? We had planes shot down on takeoff, looked like a car junk yard at the end of the runway.

 

[MstrPara]

I don't wear a Combat Action Badge because of all the reasons above - it has become a joke.

Pretty much this.

I've known 11 series who've "earned" a CIB, and never rotated their selector switch off of safe.

Plenty of CAB wearers who've never stepped off the FOB, and probably been in more danger at home from a po'd wife or husband than while deployed.

Agree with whoever said the EIB should be a PRE-requisite to the CIB.

Right now, the overawarding of CIBs/CABs (along with BSMs, Air Medals, etc) dilutes the true meaning of "earning" the award.

 

[Spike 7.62]

The Combat Action Badge has an important place on our uniform; it recognizes soldiers for serving in combat. It's a matter of pride and shows the soldier's service.

What I think is stupid is the right shoulder patch. Who cares what unit you were in the combat "zone" with, it has zero bearing on anything. It's a fashion statement more than anything, a PFC with a right shoulder patch can look down upon a 1SG with none. People who are assigned to units like 101st, 1st ID, any Cav unit, 10th Mountain, et cetera, wear those patches although they never actually served in that unit. Some soldiers use any kind of excuse to wear any kind of patch they want.

 

[Javelin]

One mortar round lands on Anaconda: 20,000 CABs are put in for.

:rofl:

Back on my second tour in Iraq (2005) I was doing some RIP equipment transfers one evening with a unit from 3rd Infantry Division on LSA Anaconda and a rocket lands about 30m from where I was standing, explodes with a blazing 100 foot tail into the air.

A 3rd Infantry Major and 3 Staff Sergeants run out and immediately start filling out paperwork with written testimony for CAB submission.

I almost laughed so hard I think I insulted them all. :dunno:

 

[Spike 7.62]

Yes unfortunately stuff like that does happen. The first IDF our FOB took while I was there was in the area of the hospital, and anyone who was in the area was awarded a CAB, whether inside or outside or what.

And interestingly, there was a unit who had a soldier toss a grenade out the humvee, essentially because he was mentally unstable. The incident was thought to be an IED, CIB paperwork was filed and it was put in the sigacs as an IED contact. When the true story came out, everyone had their CIBs revoked. ****ty part is, they were later in real combat deserving of the award. But the award is written for a single event, so they lost their badges even though they were in combat.

 

[Javelin]

Yes unfortunately stuff like that does happen. The first IDF our FOB took while I was there was in the area of the hospital, and anyone who was in the area was awarded a CAB, whether inside or outside or what.

And interestingly, there was a unit who had a soldier toss a grenade out the humvee, essentially because he was mentally unstable. The incident was thought to be an IED, CIB paperwork was filed and it was put in the sigacs as an IED contact. When the true story came out, everyone had their CIBs revoked. ****ty part is, they were later in real combat deserving of the award. But the award is written for a single event, so they lost their badges even though they were in combat.

I could see how this could happen... but the CIB requires you to essentially react to contact (returning fire while under fire). That's how my unit handled the CIB awards back in Iraq in 2003. I honestly do not know many that were in the line units that did not get one. Mine was just submitted with a long list of folks that were completing combat missions nightly so nothing really to specifically write up.

:dunno:

 

[Nanuk]

I was an MP for three years, got shot at, stabbed on several occasions and I earned an Army Service Ribbon, oh yea, so does everyone.

The CAB issue is kinda like CBP Air and Marine where the lowest rank guy in the outfit wears LTC bars. I asked them, "Kinda isn't worth anything then is it?" The did NOT want to hear that.

 

[Spike 7.62]

Ya know what ruffles my feathers? I didn't want to start another thread, I feel it's along the same lines... big medals as end of tour awards. My battery suffered 4 KIA in Iraq and they were posthumously awarded the Bronze Star with V device, as were the WIAs. Also, E7's and above received the BSM (minus V device) just as an end of tour award, whether they had stellar service or not. E6 got MSM (meritorious service medal) and E5 and below got the ARCOM if you did well on the deployment, and AAM if you did okay, and some guys actually did not get end of tour awards. Personally, I feel like an Army Commendation medal should be the highest a soldier receives for just showing up to the deployment, it's not like you have a choice anyway.

/rant.

 

[Javelin]

EDIT; I guess it really does not matter. The person who is wearing it will know if he earned his CIB or not. And if he did he will be proud.. if not ... well then he will have to live with it and I would not want to bear that guilt personally.

I wear mine proud but I wear it not for myself but because of all of the infantrymen before me that never had the chance to put it on while protecting our precious soil.

 

[Spike 7.62]

Lots of Infantry men elect to wear the EIB rather than CIB anyway. My best friend is an 11B E5 and mostly wears his EIB. I'm an Artillery man myself.

 

[CombatCamera]

I was at Bagram and IDF hit like soooooo close I could hear it, it went boom!!! wonder if I qualify for it! :rofl: Hah im Air Force and can't wear it anyways.

I do know an Army admin person that has, I will ask her what she got it for.

 

[MLCHPLL]

what do cabs and yeast infections have in common?

 

[Bren]

I was at Bagram and IDF hit like soooooo close I could hear it, it went boom!!! wonder if I qualify for it! :rofl: Hah im Air Force and can't wear it anyways.

I do know an Army admin person that has, I will ask her what she got it for.

Wait a second, Glocktalker - Air Force - Bagram: I saw an Air Force guy in the DFac when I was going on R&R - not joking - had on a shoulder holster with a double edged knife hanging below his magazines on the right, a knife strapped to his leg like a scuba diver and a machete across his back. Was that you? May have had some more knives on too, it's been a while.:rofl:

what do cabs and yeast infections have in common?

Hmmm...you qualify for both but probably won't get either?

Lots of Infantry men elect to wear the EIB rather than CIB anyway. My best friend is an 11B E5 and mostly wears his EIB. I'm an Artillery man myself.

Never heard that one before...ever. Also never seen an artilleryman make it 2 words. Are you BSing?

 

[Spike 7.62]

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. My buddy wears his EIB more than his CIB and a few guys in his clique do too, as does a former infantryman in my current unit. I'm sure tons of guys elect to wear their CIB instead if their EIB, I've certainly seen a gazillion of them, I'm just saying not all do.

<a href="http://s219.photobucket.com/albums/cc260/Spike762/?action=view&amp;current=artillerydiploma.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc260/Spike762/artillerydiploma.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

There I am receiving my Artillery school diploma, if it helps :2gun:

 

[the iceman]

Heres the problem, there are scenarios which warrant the idea behind the C.A.B. and there are scenarios that dont. So the only way to stop people from passing out a badge like its halloween candy to a lot of people that dont deserve it is to get rid of the badge all together and not award the people that do.

But thats not the Army way. We have a badge and a ribbon for everything. Hell I got 3 ribbons just for signing my name. But there are people that legitimately deserve the CAB. Ive got a buddy who is a former 88M. Did he go kicking doors down in Mosul or anything like that? No... He spent a year standing in a turret of a gun truck pulling escort duty for the one thing insurgents liked to pick fights with convoys full of soft skin fuel trucks miles from the protection of the Infantry/Armor. To quote him "My hands spent more time on a .50 call then they did my own...." well you get the point.

I love how Infantry guys get there panties in a wad any time anybody else gets some kind of award or special designation that makes them cool too. I never have an Armor guy get up my ass about flight pay or anything, its always 11 series guys.

How about you go F yourself if you think I need to learn how to be in the Infantry before I take a 30 million dollar Helicopter into a fight. Do Tankers need to go through some sort of special school so they can earn a CAB? How about Arty guys?

I had that, its called SERE.

By that same bit of thinking would it be so much to ask that we put anybody thats going into country through the full C course. Im not talking about the glossed over powerpoint BS they give everybody on the basics of what a blood **** is and such I mean the full experience that all us Aviator have to go through. After all the actual likely hood of having to operate in that way is infinitesimal for the dude that lives on Victory or something like that, but hey its a possibility just like me suddenly finding myself fighting on the ground... with a rifle. Infantry skills... there are two of us dude. And in all likely hood the rifle in the front seat will be inop after any kind of crash/force landing scenario. We arent gonna set up an ambush or flank a machine gun in defalade. We're going to run from a fight given the option every single time. These last stand at the Alamo Black Hawk down fantasies that people have... thats what happens when **** goes wrong and you dont have a choice.

Yes I know Infantry guys get all spun up doing their training prior to the deployment. You know what my unit is doing in July? Supporting the 173rd do exactly that. We dont sit around on our hands guy. But when your talking about time and dollars to train people to do _____ it gets to the point where you have to say isnt there something better we could be doing with this time. And Ive got far better things too do than take my million dollars of Army money invested ass out into the woods and play grunt. And there are plenty of other non combat MOS's which would get far more out of training to do their job not to play Infantry Joe.

Reason I jump on ideas like this and proceed to stomp on them so much is somebody might hear you and think that my Crew Chiefs would be better served by spending days on end in the woods learning how to land nav than learning how to do repairs on the aircraft from non developed locations (IE no hanger and such just wrenches and muscle).

I know this thread is a couple years old and and this topic might not even matter anymore but judging from your comments...you sound just like the type of soldier that this badge was designed for.

 

[Reheater]

Was that supposed to be a jab or a compliment? Seriously it could go either way.

If you mean a first line combatant who isnt in the infantry branch then I'd say yes I'm exactly that soldier and that's what this batch was designed for.

 

[CombatCamera]

Wait a second, Glocktalker - Air Force - Bagram: I saw an Air Force guy in the DFac when I was going on R&R - not joking - had on a shoulder holster with a double edged knife hanging below his magazines on the right, a knife strapped to his leg like a scuba diver and a machete across his back. Was that you? May have had some more knives on too, it's been a while.:rofl:

ROFL that wasn't me, I only stoped though Bagram for a night. I wish I had a sweet machete!!!!!!