I have been reading thru the posts regarding the CIB. So I am adding some comments:
After the European War was over, I was sent back from my combat engineer outfit to compute the points for members of B Company, 312th Engineers. At chow time I went thru the line at the Division Hqs. mess. All ranks were in this line. Every one of the servers was wearing a CIB, altho it was obvious that they hadn't had any real combat experience. I asked one of them if he had actually served in actual combat as an infantryman. His response was that everyone in Division Hqs. was awarded the CIB. I smiled and went on my way.
I had actually served in various combat situations. We had a volunteer Infantry Tiger Patrol accompany us when we were blowing up pill boxes; their job, to keep the pill boxes buttoned up if, in fact, they were occupied.
We had other assignments that had us out in front of the Infantry on numerous occasions (e.g. Mine Planting and Mine Removal). We had our share of Purple Hearts and KIAs. Near the end of the War we actually served as Infantrymen on a few occasions. Being Engineers we did not qualify for the CIB and accepted the fact that we were not in the Infantry, and the badge specifically is called the Combat INFANTRY Badge.
However, I do think that Combat Engineers should have had a badge similar to the CIB. I believe they created a
Combat Medic Badge, but I have no facts regarding that. --Bill Jasper