Re: Army creates new combat badge for non-infantry soldiers
One bad aspect about the new badge that is being overlooked is that Artillery FO teams assigned to infantry units in combat will not be eligible for the new badge. This is the same terrible injustice that occured to our FO teams in Vietnam. Many of the FO teams were force, due to circumstances, to become just another rifleman in bad situations. The FO teams humped with us, carried the same rucks and radios and often carried the extra ammo for the Pig as well as claymores etc. They dug their holes everynight, took guard and still still all the arty stuff like plotting defcons and H&I points. In Nam they were not authorized the CIB and now if in the same role they will not be authorized the new badge, however if they are back with their Arty unit and do combat patrols etc they will be eligible. Go figure this one out.
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