CIB's being awarded to com engs

[Walt's Daughter]

Received this today. Have not responded yet because want to take my time and carefully word my reply. I however did send a copy of the letter below to Captain John Fallon.

 

========================

 

Dear Ms Chard:

 

I'm writing this to clarify the circumstances under which the Combat Infantry Badge may be awarded. I don't mean to be verbose, but the subject requires considerable attention to details.

 

I speak with some authority on the issue. I am the National Historian for the Combat Infantrymen's Association, and in that capacity I am involved in research of personnel records of those who wish to join our organization, all of whom must prove that they are legitimately entitled to wear this prestigious award.

 

There are two ways an applicant can prove he received the award:

 

1. As every award requires documentation, usually in the form of Special Orders issued at the level of the unit in which the soldier is serving. Those "orders" will show the date of the award and the identity of the Unit the soldier was serving in at the time he qualified for the award. A copy of those orders were normally entered into the soldiers 201 file and, when possible, a copy was issued to the individual. In either case when the individual was separated from active duty he received Form DD214,or in the case of WWII veterans, a similar document. It is a one page record of assignments, wounds received, awards given and campaigns he participated in, along with other information such as his Military Occupational Specialty (MOS). This form will not necessarily show all of his past military assignments or units. It will show the "most significant" assignment, usually the last assignment before being separated.

 

After separation from active duty the soldiers 201 file was sent to St. Louis,MO to be archived. Those records were more detailed that the DD214 and showed every interim assignment that the individual occupied, all of his medical records, letters of discipline or commendations etc. It is an unfortunate fact that the vast majority of WWII and Korean war veterans records were destroyed in a fire at the Records Center.

 

2. The applicant can also provide an original DD214, or a photo copy. If the soldier was awarded the C.I.B. that award will be so noted in his DD214. I goes without further discussion that if the documentation doesn't support his claim for the award he didn't receive it.

 

Because of that fire I've found it extremely difficult to reconstruct records of individuals. Most of our applicants waited for years before they decided to join our association. Their memories are not as vivid now as they were decades ago. This is not to say that we're totally unsuccessful. If any of the veterans joined Reserve units after they were separated from the Active army there is a possibility that those records were copied and forwarded to the Reserve component. I've made some inquiries and have been able to document the award from those records.

 

As to who qualifies for the C.I.B. you'll find that there is ample documentation, which I've included, that is specific in establishing the qualifications.

 

If you look closely you'll find that is award (CIB) is given only to those Army personnel whose PRIMARY duty is to close with and kill an armed enemy. It is the purpose for which they were trained.

 

This is not to degrade the actions of other military branches who are exposed to life threatening hazards while on active duty. There are numerous occupations in the Army that take people into harms way, but for the most part these folks do it on a sporadic basis and not a part of a full time killing function.

 

The Army, in recognition of the risks these people are faced with established the "Combat Action Badge", which recognizes the fact that these people were subjected to enemy fire when engaged with the enemy in a non-infantry capacity. This was brought about by the Iraq war where our troops were continually at risk even though they were not assigned as Infantry.

 

From time to time we find that the various branches of the Army attempt to establish an equivalent to the C.I.B. There were proposals for a Armor Combat Badge, an Artillery Combat Badge etc. These proposals were discussed and evaluated. All were rejected.

 

Now to the crux of the matter...Combat engineers awarded the C.I.B.

 

It is entirely possible that they were.....in error! This was especially true in WWII, a time when there was little stability in the mid level command structures due to reassignments, rotation of assignments between Army branches and a proliferation of directives, memos etc. Many awards were made in error, the C.I.B. not being the least.

 

There are numerous military occupations where the incumbent is at an even higher risk than the combat infantryman, but for the most part these assignments are limited to short periods of time. The Army recognizes some of these in the form of a badge, but these types of badges are primarily used to indicate the type of specialty that justifies singular recognition for technical expertise, ie:

 

Then we have situations where the C.I.B. was awarded to an individual who had been in a combat infantry environment and received the C.I.B. only later transferred to a non-infantry unit. I'm aware of holders of the C.I.B. who later transferred into the Navy and who wear the C.I.B.

 

The Navy and Marines have no badge equivalent to the C.I.B; they recognize combat service with a ribbon.

 

The Army has never varied the criteria. The C.I.B was approved 15 Nov 43 and instituted the same day. The War Department issued a Circular #186 on 11 May 44 which was used to disseminate the criteria Army wide and which is almost identical to the wording used in describing the award except that it delineated exactly what the phrase "action against the enemy" meant, and was interpreted as "ground combat against enemy ground forces" .

 

I hope this has clarified the issue.

 

Regards'

 

Louis Orlando

National Historian

Combat Infantrymen's Association

www.cibassoc.com