Robert,
After some reflection on this matter of awarding the CIB to engineers, I came up with a few questions for you.
Both Infantry and Armored divisions routinely created Task Forces to meet the changing demands of the battlefield. Often these task forces were built around an infantry battalion or infantry regiment, and were under the control of the battalion or regimental commanding officer. These task forces frequently included armor and engineers (organic and otherwise). These units supported the infantry's advances by direct fire. In other instances, the infantry might cross a waterway with tanks and engineers providing direct fire support and even crossing the waterway in the company of the infantry.
According to your interpretation of the criteria for the CIB, the members of each of these supporting units, including the engineers, would be eligible for the award. So here is the question.
Would the CIB be recommended only for the officers of the supporting units?
Would it be necessary for a senior officer like Truscott to recommend the CIB before it could be awarded?
Or would the members of each of these supporting units automatically be eligible for the CIB because they were engaged in combat alongside of and while attached to an infantry unit?
If this is the case, in part or in full, then every soldier (assuming that you are wrong about the officers being eligible when the NCOs and enlisted men are not) who engaged in combat while in direct support of an infantry unit to which they were attached at the time in question, would be eligible for the CIB.
Would you limit the CIB to just engineers or would the artillery FO be eligible? What about the tankers whose tank was knocked out and were forced to take refuge with (and fight alongside) the infantry they were supporting? Would the Forward Air Liaison be eligible if he opened fire on the enemy with his personal weapon? Once you start handing out the CIB to men in non-infantry units, where does it stop? In other words, what is the cut-off point, assuming there is one to be found within the model you have constructed?
I look forward to reading your answers to these perfectly legitimate questions.
Jim