As long as I can remember, the wearing of marksmanship badges have been viewed as declasse by officers- sort of viewed as the ultimate 2LT badgehunting. It is sort of surprising though that, in this day and age- with so many junk ribbons that get awarded just for breathing, that there is one badge in the Army's lexicon that has been blackballed by the Officer corps (though not by the enlisted ranks).
![]()
Every other dopey ribbon, badge, tab etc. Is ok (and by the time you have been in for a couple of years you will have 3 banks of the darn things without really having done all that much other than moved- it used to be that the AF was mocked for a ribbon for every occassion, but the Army is every bit as silly these days), but not the badge that theoretically shows that you know how to fire your weapon.
All the officers I've ever seen never wore marksmanship badges in dress uniforms. This logic might be the driver on the culture that I note above. The expert Infantryman badge, also refereed to as EIB, is a skill badge awarded to Infantrymen and soldiers in the Special Forces for completion of the EIB course which tests a soldiers proficiency in infantry skills.Those skills are tested in topics like: First Aid; Chemical. Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) procedures; Call for fire (indirect Fire).
As long as I can remember, the wearing of marksmanship badges have been viewed as declasse by officers- sort of viewed as the ultimate 2LT badgehunting. It is sort of surprising though that, in this day and age- with so many junk ribbons that get awarded just for breathing, that there is one badge in the Army's lexicon that has been blackballed by the Officer corps (though not by the enlisted ranks). Every other dopey ribbon, badge, tab etc. Is ok (and by the time you have been in for a couple of years you will have 3 banks of the darn things without really having done all that much other than moved- it used to be that the AF was mocked for a ribbon for every occassion, but the Army is every bit as silly these days), but not the badge that theoretically shows that you know how to fire your weapon.
There are definitely some ribbons that are given too freely (the ARCOM and BSM leap to mind) but overall, the AF still takes the cake. The big difference is that most soldiers know the ribbons are given too freely. Most airmen I've met (not all) think they've 'earned' every one. I guess it's the same mentality as thinking 6 months is a 'long tour' in 'the sandbox' (an abhorrent part of the office-dweller vernacular). Notable cultural differences, which of course do not apply universally.Most units actually do a poor job policing the badges. You could go grab a handful of soldiers and easily find one wearing an expert badge who didn't shoot expert on his most recent qual. There are definitely some ribbons that are given too freely (the ARCOM and BSM leap to mind) but overall, the AF still takes the cake.
The big difference is that most soldiers know the ribbons are given too freely. Most airmen I've met (not all) think they've 'earned' every one. I guess it's the same mentality as thinking 6 months is a 'long tour' in 'the sandbox' (an abhorrent part of the office-dweller vernacular).
Notable cultural differences, which of course do not apply universally.Most units actually do a poor job policing the badges. You could go grab a handful of soldiers and easily find one wearing an expert badge who didn't shoot expert on his most recent qual. This is a topic that literally gets my blood pressure to a high enough level to need medical help!After 30 years.I have a 'rack' that to the NON military.seems like I'm a Foreign Field Marshal!To a military person in the USA.there are a few (3 perhaps) that folks will say: 'Hmm.he's seen something/been someplace and done some things that were probably serious.' I was there, I had a coke, saw the sights, I've been around long enough and NOT gotten into trouble, etc.etc.' Do they mean anything to me? No.We hand out FAR too many 'baubles' to appease the masses. And then they are 'scored' for evaluations and promotions so the push is to make sure you get as many as you can!
The prime example I've seen? An E-6 that had 9 Commendation Medals and 8 Achievement Medals.
This after 10 years service.We've become silly.er.SteveUSAFA ALOUSAFA '83. Interesting point as recently I have read alot about some of the 4 stars from the 1920's to post WWII (I gotta do CULP or something next year, this summer is taking forever ). What stood out to me was that not too many were ever MFE officers (ordnance and engineer corps stood out ALOT more than infantry) and that very few ever went overseas for anything. 9 or 10 ribbons was worthy of being called a Turkish Admiral. Just an interesting thing to compare to the modern military.As a note, I've heard that due to budget cuts and politics, we're going to be seeing alot less of 'every officer in the Army being sent to Airborne School', 'every MFE officer being Ranger qualified', etc. And alot more support-branched officers being promoted to high-ranking command and staff positions. I don't know what this has to do with wearing marskmanship badges and zillions of service ribbons, but What are you talking about above??
Was this a history book or a comic book? Virtually none of them were in any branch other than Infantry or Armor - Marshall was an Infantryman, Handy was an Artilleryman, Patton was Armor,Somervell was an Engineer, Bradley, Clark and Devers were Infantry, Eisenhower was Infantry, Krueger and Stillwell were Infantry. MacArthur started off as an Engineer. I must be missing somebody who was an Army 4Star in WW2, but I don't see any non-Combat Arms branches in there- I don't know what you read but that is literally completely untrue. What is true about the 4 stars in WW2 was that most of them had relatively little experience in command of troops in combat prior to WW2 with the exception of MacArthur, Patton and Krueger, and Marshall was the CoS for Pershing in WW1, and because the Army of the preWW2 era had so few troops and was organized with no units above a regiment located in one post- very few had any real experience around units the size of a Division much less a Corps or Army. So their experiences during the Interwar period included a huge variety of commands in and out of their branches, sometimes completely outside the Army.
But you pretty much missed the boat entirely with the assertion above- go re-read or find a new book.
![]() Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2023
Categories |