EIB testing to change
The Army Times writes an article about how testing for the Expert Infantry Badge will change.
The infantry branch is in the midst of a pilot program, with soldiers testing out ideas to update the evaluation’s 30 tasks and the way they’re graded, led by a senior NCO at Fort Benning, Georgia.
“Their feedback was really essential to rolling out this new standard, making sure it was validated before it hit the horse,” Master Sgt. Charles Evans, from the office of the Chief of the Infantry, said in a Monday release. “Just working out all the kinks and making sure that all the tasks were applicable, realistic and up to date with the latest doctrine.”
EIB testing consists of 30 tasks carried out in three lanes: a weapons, patrol and medic lane. The basics will be the same, the release said, but there will be some reworking to the way soldiers complete indirect fire, move under fire, grenades, CPR and care under fire.
Mostly, changes will affect the options units have for conducting testing in general, in order to standardize and streamline the process, the release said.
Yeah, I don’t understand what the big deal is, other than that comment about “working out all the kinks and making sure that all the tasks were applicable, realistic”. I guess they might be making it easier for people who are joining the infantry based on their gender.
Capt. Michelle Roberts earned her EIB seven years ago. I’m not sure what they expect changing standards and streamlining the process to do. I was the NCOIC for EIB testing for the 3rd Infantry Division for three years, the process already worked for us.
Category: Army News
yeah, that particular verbiage sounds ominously vague.
You should know why Jonn, some O-6 wants to make O-7 and really needs to change “something” to get that star.
Hate to be the first cynic, but it’s early morning so why not.
MSG Eric: Two words: Top Heavy. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians!
Change for the sake of change, like uniforms. Wish Mattis would crack down on it…
I got mine as an E-2. I was one of six from my platoon and less that 20 from the Company.
I want to say there were about 42 or 43 tasks.
I received mine in 1999. I “bolloed” one lane, Night Nav, but passed the next night. That was my only no-go.
I was also cadre for three years – Grenades. It always gets a lot of people as many incoming Privates were not athletes (they played video games in high school) and could not throw a baseball 35 yards. When you are “blade running”, you cannot get another no-go.
It is actually becoming more important with the deployments drawing down and is scrutinized in promotions.
Anyway, unsure why they need to change it. Infantrymen need these skills. If I had to add one thing, it might be knots.
Outside of that, looks like another waste of time.
“Change is the illusion of progress.”
Saw rather a lot of this in the Navy, so I’m not particularly surprised to see it comes in olive drab, too.
Another expression:
“Today’s Navy is an 18th Century organization, being dragged kicking and screaming into the 19th.”
If it ain’t broke, let the Field Grade/General Officer halfass fix it.
Go back to the right way of doing things when they leave.
EIB in 1991 as an E-3. Double no-go’d it in 1990 on night land nav.
Will us old timers have to retest for it to still count? 🙂
I served as an EIB lane grader for first Aid several times in the 25th Inf, and during an MFO rotation in Egypt…at the time, EFMB/CMB holders could be used as graders for that purpose; are qualified medics still used as first aid graders for EIB?
I got to 1-21 right after their MFO rotation. Rumor has it that EIB was a ballbuster.
I tested in late ‘02 and they were using Medics as graders.
Same thing at Ft Benning in ‘09-‘10 time frame, Sledgehammer hosting.
I hope the SOP continues. Infantrymen and Docs, it’s a weird bond that shouldn’t be f*ed with.
I went with 2/27 to MFO in 96-97….I received my EFMB in the Sinai at Peacekeeper range in August; it was a friggen smoker.
The Infantry platoon I was assigned to at the time walked the 12 mile road march with me…that’s the kind of support and bond I shared with the Infantry…no other bond like it anywhere in the world.
I was in A Co 2/27 during that rotation. I double no-goed grenades that year. I remember that testing had to be paused for a day so testing sites could be rebuilt after they got washed away during that massive rain storm. When we got back I didn’t go on leave in order to do EIB with another unit and ended up getting it that time.
LOL…Yes! I was at CP 3-D down on the red sea…we lost most of our outer bunker and Helo pad during that storm, and the Egyptian Police Academy across the street donated about 200 pairs of Russian made combat boots what washed into our perimeter concertina wife from the Police Academy storage shack up the hill.
I am sure we have met in person on more than one occasion…I was a Wolfhoud from 94-98
I was at CP 3-C just up the road from you guys. It seems like my Platoon rotated out with your Platoon at the CPs. I was a Wolfhound from 94-97. I left 3 months after getting back from MFO. I PCSd to Ft Campbell and lo and behold I was assigned to the Battalion going to MFO so 3 months after getting to Campbell I was back at MFO. The Brits at the Wild Geese remembered me.
Well, in more news, they are also developing the Expert Soldier Badge I think I read. I guess everybody needs a badge like everybody needed a beret.
Yeah… isn’t it sad?
Don’t get me started on when the Navy’s Enlisted Aviation Warfare Specialist (EAWS) program first came out.
Just like the USAF. I think now every single job has a badge of some sort, which on the BDU all looked alike (and way too much like jump wings). Heck, I even got two, for the same job. And my career field wasn’t the only one to get two badges.
One has to wonder when this badge craze in services is going to end or at least taper off. Military members are starting to look like those ridiculous Nork generals with more badges than an eagle scout. Pretty soon they will have to start wearing those green felt bandoliers, just like the scouts, to hold all their stinking badges.
At least the USN/USMC only allow 2 badges at a time (with minor exception for select pocket badges)to be worn no matter how many badges you’ve earned. 🙂
Quit frankly, the level of badge wearing and other bling on Army uniforms is becoming embarrassing. I see photos of junior NCO’s and officers with 5 or 6 years of service with five plus rows of ribbons and stinking badges and DUI’s hanging everywhere, including those damn German marksmanship ropes. They have more shit on their uni’s than an ex-senior NCO SF Major I served who had a MOH and a CIB with the star.
Is that a flintlock on the badge?
Maybe just change that symbol to something more modern, instead of messing with a program that works.
Sometimes, people want to change things because they CAN, not because it is necessary.
Funny, but no. The M1795 made by Springfield and Harper’s Ferry Armories was the first standard weapon of the U.S. military.
The history of that flintlock is the history of the U.S. Army and the country.
Still funny tho.
How about the XM-8, bka the ‘angry fish’? Best Infantry weapon EVER!
Best Infantry weapon EVER*!
*this week.
Fixed it.
Patton said the Garand was the best infantry weapon ever!
That Harper’s Ferry musket prolly was the best infantry weapon ever, in the war of 1812.
I know, Roh-Dog, and you got the point: if the flintlock as a symbol is good enough for the modern Army, why does training that works have to change?
It doesn’t.
I’m tired of this whole business about ‘boys can and girls can’t’. Some boys can’t do it either, and some girls can excel in it.
That’s it in a nutshell. It would make more sense to improve arms and armor.
Yeah, the infantry wouldn’t want to change the rifle that is on the EIB, CIB and the crossed rifles.
It has quite the meaning to the grunt.
H&K XM-8
Thanks, AW1Ed. I just threw up a little.
Before you post something like that how about a NSFW, may cause temporary blindness and/or paralysis.
What a cluster o’ f*** that program was.
Millions of dollars gone to realize the M4 exists and H&K likes money.
I am here to help, Roh-Dog. The Navy has had it’s share of goat-rope programs, too. Ever hear of the A-12?
*grin*
I believe that the A-12 claims against the Gov’t are still tied up in the courts. After 30 years !
John
I stand corrected. The A-12 claims and counterclaims were settled in 2014.
http://swampland.time.com/2014/01/27/the-a-12-admiral-peabodys-ultimate-wayback-machine/
Then what, change the MP crossed flintlocks to M9s? Maybe the Navy PH rating to ‘iPhone camera pointer’?? ( ducks)
PH rating no longer exists. It is Mass Communications Specialist (MCS) and Combat Camera is no longer a specialty, because everyone has a camera, right?
And with all those Go-Pros and tablets and stuff – well, who really needs someone who can do poignant photos of a Marine trying to comfort a dying comrade in the rain while under bombardment?
How about this Ex-PH2… especially for those going over to the new Space Force.
http://i.imgur.com/6scxk6ql.jpg
I want one. I want that, and a Porsche and a house with room for a pony.
They say “change” but I smell politics, politics and shit often smell the same.
EIB = Everybody In the Battalion
Now here is a question for the Army folks. If you are awarded the EIB and then are awarded a CIB, do you wear both or does the CIB superceded the EIB?
you may wear either, but not both at the same time. some guys are more proud of their EIB because it is truly a mark of a professional, tested and proven. but it is the individual’s discretion.
i opt for the CIB, and most seem to as well.
Got my EIB 18 months after CIB. I was a bit proud of the newness of it so I had the EIB put on a couple of my BDUs so I could sport the EIB a little bit instead of the CIB. My platoon leader was not happy about that and got pretty twisted off on me. I wasn’t in any way trying to degrade the CIB.
CIB trumps EIB, technically.
Both are group 1 devices, the CIB takes presidence. AR 670-1, “Combat badges have precedence over special skill badges within the same group. For example, if an individual is authorized to wear the Combat Infantry badge and the Expert Infantry badge, the Combat Infantry badge is worn.”
and i was wrong, Roh-Dog is correct.
see? it’s confusing even for us.
With a 120 GT score and 8 years as a NCO you’d figure I’d be an Army Regulation Expert.
Untrainable.
To throw a wrench in our little convo, when EIB testing is taking place, local Commanders can authorize EIB holders to wear the badge on the uniform. At Benning the graders were REQUIRED to wear the sta-brite badge.
Army…SMH. Why even bother writing rules down?
Thanks everyone, clears it up.
I should look, but as I recall it is in the regs that a 3-star or higher GO can modify their uniform without approval. Which is how we got things like the Ike jacket and embroidered ribbons.
This is a broom ,this is a buffer.
GO/NO GO
after being in the USMC for the first gulf war, i just bypassed the EIB and went straight to the CIB…then after becoming a medic so i would not be getting shot at so much, got a CAB ( didn’t work out like i planned after all). Ironically i was not awarded a CMB because i was assigned to an Iraqi infantry unit as part of their MITT team and their combat wounds don’t count…
That brings up a combination question I haven’t thought of or seen.
If one has a a CIB and a CMB, can they only wear one or the other or both?
one or the other. you can only wear one device from either group 1 (CIB, EIB, CAB) or group 2 (CMB, EFMB), IIRC.
One combat from group 1 or two, group 1 combat if awarded must be worn, there for group 2 Combat is not.
One could have a EIB and wear a CMB, or CIB with a EFMB.
DA PAM/AR 670-1 is a f’ing nightmare to decipher, good luck.
I’m wrong, jim h is correct. Group 1 is CIB, EIB, CAB. Group 2 is CMB, EFMB.
Only one from group 1 or 2. (Had a prior Infantry PA that clearly was breaking the rules, had a long tab so…)
Apparently there is still a marksmanship tab for flamethrower.
Want.
really? yesssss! i know it’s a poser move, but if you get one, you *need* to double-rung that one, bro!
With a plasma rifle clasp?!
You may only wear one badge from groups 1 or 2. If you have a combat badge (i.e. EIB and CMB), the combat badge will be worn.
This is a change (effective 2014), from previous policy which permitted wear of multiples such as CIB/CMB/EFMB. Probably some SGM making an NCOER bullet.
a CIB is a catagory 1 badge. A CMB is a catagory 2 badge. So yes you can wear both.
I do not know about that.
Even if you picked up both under differnt MOS, you can only wear one.
And I think the tabs are next as the CIB and CMB are worn above them (to include Cib and EFMB).
I never took the EIB test, but I think I know why the progs with uni’s want to change it. There is likely something on the test that they think is too difficult of the wimmens to pass. They don’t need to change the test, just have a general officer bucking for his next star serve as the grader for the part of the test the wimmens have trouble with. just like they did for those wimmens at Ranger School.
Even if a woman soldier gets one it’ll STILL be the
COMBAT INFANTRYMAN BADGE
and
EXPERT INFANTRYMAN BADGE
triggered.
Well, then those GIRLS will just have to deal with the fact that the -MAN suffix is a generic term and has nothing to do with plumbing.
OKAY????????????????????
I said: I’m getting tired and fed up with some of this juvenile nonsense. All it does is waste time and tax money that could go into TRAINING.
You should try to look on the bright side of life. Keep looking up and being optimistic. You might fall into a person hole because the personhole cover is off, but hey, that’s what looking up is all about!
Personhole is going to go the way of the melted snowflake, MSG Eric.
Henceforth, it will be Hominidhole. Isn’t that just brilliant????
INFANTRY GENDER-NEUTRAL BADGE?
infantrypersun badge. can’t say woman, women, or person because of the masculine words. it’s womin, womyn, and persun.
kinda makes you wonder why the Spartans at Thermopylae even bothered saving western civilization sometimes.
If they could have foreseen what useless panty wastes many would become they would have stayed home and made more magnificent Spartans and said “heck with this”
Army guys and their pieces of flare. 🤣
You’re just jealous!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Service_Ribbon
We have pride pouring out our…ears.
I hate that ribbon and never wore it after it “came out.”
Totally a stupid piece of bling — the fact that a soldier is on active duty and wearing the uniform *after* successful completion of basic training is proof of army service.
“Bling? We don’ need no steenkin bling!”
I did both basic and IOBC.
I should get a cluster!
Sure is a purty ribbon, RD. Now what does it remind me of…
I don’t know what it reminds you of but
I would like to point out that The Village People had a song In the Navy, so…
J/K.
At least the Army’s badges look like the things they are, I’m looking at you Air Force Occupational Career Group Badges.
Macho macho man!
I wanna be a macho man!
It appears that there are people who want as many ribbons as they can get for just showing up. I thought that was what the gedunk medal was supposed to do for them.
Hey, you mean the Expert Floor Buffer and KP Ribbon?
API:
Actually, a Soldier in the 1960s assigned to a NIKE-HERCULES unit in Fairbanks, Alaska DID create a Buffer Badge:
http://nikealaska.org/peter/SitePETER.html
The picture of the badge is embedded within the story (don’t have the capability of cutting and pasting the picture on this site).
The story behind the Buffer Badge:
“As an aside, one of the responsibilities of every on-duty Nike crew was to keep the tile floors of their facilites waxed and buffed to a high sheen. This was a daily and nightly duty and any Nike vet can attest to the many lonely hours spent in the middle of the night running the electric buffer back and forth across that tile. This never-ending task and fact of Nike life inspired the pencil and charcoal rendition of the Expert Rifleman Badge reproduced below. It was created by a soldier of B-2-562 circa 1968.
And if Yef wants one, he can always order the T-Shirt:
http://militarymemorabiliainc.com/expert-buffer-badge-t-shirt/
Who knew?
🙂
Allow me.
Thank You, AW1Ed! 👍
Come and get it, Yef, while supplies last!
And heck, if you are nice, A Proud Infidel may even pin it on you! (Attention to Orders, TAH…)
😎
Fixed, no charge.
😁😃😆😊
I want one too. Heck, I earned it. They could also have a new branch insignia, crossed mop and broom, for those poor SOBs whose MOSs were “duty soldier”.
“duty soldier” – Army MOS 57A
Duty Foreman (Spec4 and above Fuck-up) – Army MOS 57G
It’s so hard to pick out that CAR on jarheads’ uniforms though. 🙂
Speaking of wearing BOTH the EIB and CIB together in uniform:
In 2016, this NCO came up with the idea of creating a NEW award/medal for those who earned both:
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2016/07/13/nco-pitches-a-new-award-for-grunts-who-ve-earned-the-cib-and-eib/
Be All That You Can Be. 😎
Okay, I can see the good idea behind that proposed badge. In fact, I may go to a surplus store, get something to put it together so it looks real, and send youse guys a photo of it.
I just might do that. I’ve done stranger things.
That would look good on a leather vest.
As a ex USAF/Navy guy, I never knew the quals for the EIB. I thought that one would get the EIB and after being in combat you got the CIB.
You guys have educated me today, thanks. John
Ex-PH2 and AW1Ed:
Well, this is interesting.
This event (Alignment of the Planets) is suppose to happen tomorrow, 19 July. The video was made a year ago. What do you both think?:
https://youtu.be/f3x7hPWKB2c
Dress right, dress!* Like more Marines on Guam, all the planets on one side of the sun will cause the entire solar system to capsize.
Some say this has already happened.
*more familiar with celestial nav, not astrology. I defer that arcane art to Ex.
Thanks, AW1Ed! Thought about you and Ex-PH2 because of your interests in our Galaxy (Solar System, stars) as well as celestial nav and astrology…after I posted, I realized I put this on the wrong Forum (was supposed to be on WOT…sorry!).
Thanks for the feedback!✨
Oh, this happen occasionally. It’s not so unusual. There was all that hysteria in the 1990s about all the planets lining up in a row – something about how it would disrupt the entire solar system’s gravitational field and things would go flying off on tangents, orbits disrupted, Mercury pulled out of its orbit, Mars pulled apart by Earth and Jupiter, etc., etc., etc.
In other words, it was a collection of nonsense fostered by the know-nothings in the newspapers. I had more concerns about Comet Hale-Bopp coming anywhere near Earth but the orbit was wide of Earth’s. And then Shoemaker-Levy, a ‘string of pearls’ broken comet, smashed into Jupiter and left “scars” (dark marks) in Jupiter’s atmosphere for months. We missed that by the skin of our teeth.
You should be able to see Saturn and the Moon together in the sky late at night when the moon is nearing its full state, but that’s only if they rise within barking distance of each other in the sky.
I believe the Martian dust storm is over with now, so if you locate it and have a good telescope, you might be able to see some of the dark features.
And frankly, I’d be more concerned with Trojans (asteroid NEOs) approaching Earth.
Even though astronomers have a weather eye on all of that, they missed the most recent one until it hove into sight.
I think Comet Pann-Starrs is somewhere out there in the distant parts of the system.
In regard to astrology, this retrograde activity of Mars and Saturn into Capricorn has something to do with karma (fate), but they both go direct (forward) soon: Mars in August and Saturn in September.
Good time to review all your unfinished business and projects, which you should do, anyway.
“Good time to review all your unfinished business and projects, which you should do, anyway.”
Hmmmm….
I heard ‘weapons maintenance, load magazines, drink beer’ but I’m a simple man.
But for real, I’m trying to diversity my food stores, any ideas. Ever mason jar dehydrated potatoes with oxygen absorbers?
No, I just leave them in the foil-lined packs in the cardboard box. Good for two years, or more if you have to stretch it.