The
Combat Action Badge is a military
badgeBadges of the United States Army are military decorations issued by the United States Department of the Army to soldiers who achieve a variety of qualifications and accomplishments while serving on active and reserve duty in the United States Army....
worn in the U.S. Army. The emblem features both an
M9 bayonetThe M9 Bayonet is a multi-purpose knife and bayonet officially adopted in 1984 by the United States. It has a blade and is issued with a sheath designed to double as a wire cutter. It was designed and developed by Charles A. "Mickey" Finn at his R&D company, Qual-A-Tec. He later produced it under...
and
M67 grenadeThe M67 grenade is a fragmentation hand grenade used by the United States Military and Canadian Forces, where it is referred to as the C13. The M67 is a replacement for the M61 grenade used during Vietnam and the older Mk 2 "pineapple" grenade used since World War II.-Composition:The M67 Grenade...
. The Combat Action Badge may be awarded to any
soldierA soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
after the date of September 18, 2001 performing duties in an area where hostile fire pay or imminent danger pay is authorized, who is personally present and
actively engaging or being engaged by the enemy, and performing satisfactorily in accordance with the prescribed
rules of engagementRules of Engagement refers to those responses that are permitted in the employment of military personnel during operations or in the course of their duties. These rules of engagement are determined by the legal framework within which these duties are being carried out...
. Award is not limited by one's
branch of serviceThe United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
or
military occupational specialtyA United States military occupation code, or a Military Occupational Specialty code , is a nine character code used in the United States Army and United States Marines to identify a specific job. In the U.S. Air Force, a system of Air Force Specialty Codes is used...
, but is only authorized for wear on U.S. Army uniforms. A silver badge 2 inches (5.08 cm) in width overall consisting of an oak wreath supporting a rectangle bearing a bayonet surmounting a grenade, all silver. Stars are added at the top to indicate subsequent awards; one star for the second award, two stars for the third award and three stars for the fourth award. In comparison to the
Combat Infantryman BadgeThe Combat Infantryman Badge is the U.S. Army combat service recognition decoration awarded to soldiers—enlisted men and officers holding colonel rank or below, who personally fought in active ground combat while an assigned member of either an infantry or a Special Forces unit, of brigade size...
(CIB), the CAB has a silver rectangle backing rather than blue, and the CAB is 1 inch shorter in length than the CIB.
History
Throughout the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and afterward, troops serving in combat engineer and armored units clamored for their own version of the
EIBThe Expert Infantryman Badge, or EIB, is a military badge of the United States Army. Although similar in name and appearance to the Combat Infantryman Badge , it is a completely different award: while the CIB is awarded for participation in ground combat, the EIB is presented for completion of a...
/CIB. Despite numerous staff studies and recommendations, the request never gained the support of senior army leadership. However, as soldiers from across the spectrum of Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) engaged in direct contact with enemy forces in the Global War on Terror, the proposal gained new traction.
It appears that the concept for the current Combat Action Badge came from an article written for
ArmorARMOR is the professional journal of the U.S. Army’s Armor Branch, published by the Chief of Armor at Fort Knox, Kentucky, training center for the Army’s tank and cavalry forces...
magazine in the Spring of 2004 in which Major Matthew De Pirro asserts the need for such a badge based upon the evolving face of warfare and the ongoing transformation of the Army De Pirro stated:
Fellow troopers, I submit to you that our Army would be better served by recognizing our soldiers who have faced an enemy in direct-fire combat with a Combat Action Badge. We are an Army in transformation. A few years ago, we donned the black beret as a symbol of that transformation. It is time for the disparity of the Combat Infantry Badge to end. It is time for the perceived badge wars to end. It is now time to take our transformation one step further. It is time for the Combat Action Badge.
The CAB was originally planned as a ribbon which was to have been known as the "
Combat Recognition RibbonThe Combat Recognition Ribbon was a tentative military award of the United States Army which was first proposed in the mid 1980s as an Army equivalent to the United States Navy’s Combat Action Ribbon....
". However, as ribbons are generally seen as less prestigious than
medalsAwards and decorations of the United States Military are military decorations which recognize service and personal accomplishments while a member of the United States armed forces...
and badges, the CAB was then proposed as the "Close Combat Badge" (or CCB), thus granting the award badge status vice ribbon. This was to be a combat award only for soldiers who did not hold the
infantryInfantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
military occupational specialty (MOS), but who were deployed specifically to fulfill an infantry duty. This was in response to the large number of non-infantry (
tankA tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
crews, for example) who were deployed to
IraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and whose units were reorganized to function as infantry (motorized or light) due to the lack of need for tanks and shortage of infantry.
The change from the Close Combat Badge to the CAB may have come about thanks to a question put to
Donald RumsfeldDonald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
in an April 2005 Afghanistan town hall meeting by a female military police soldier as to why the CCB would not include military police soldiers in its awarding criteria despite the combat nature of the military police's job in Afghanistan and Iraq's 360-degree battlefield.
The CAB creation was approved by the U.S. Army on May 2, 2005, and can be retroactively awarded to soldiers who engaged in combat after September 18, 2001. On June 29, 2005, General Peter J. Schoomaker awarded the Army's new Combat Action Badge for the first time to
SergeantSergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
s April Pashley, Michael Buyas, Manuel J Montano, Timothy Gustafson and Sean Steans. Over eighty thousand badges have been awarded since the creation of the award.
The criteria for the badge does not specify the nature of the hostile fire that a soldier must receive to be awarded. In practice, though, most commanders do not issue this award to qualified soldiers unless they are directly engaged in combat. Notably, it is granted exclusively for contact with enemy combatants, so actions by noncombatants like detainees or rioting civilians do not qualify. It should also be noted that endless memos have been written by commanders to deter the CAB from being awarded, leading to indirect fire usually being discounted unless it results in the death of the soldier.
The award is not available to U.S. Army combat veterans of previous conflicts.
See also
- Combat Action Ribbon
The Combat Action Ribbon is a personal military decoration of the United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, and United States Coast Guard which is awarded to those who, in any grade including and below that of a Captain in the Navy and Coast Guard , have actively participated in ground or...
—US Navy/Marine Corps/Coast Guard equivalent
- Combat Infantryman Badge
The Combat Infantryman Badge is the U.S. Army combat service recognition decoration awarded to soldiers—enlisted men and officers holding colonel rank or below, who personally fought in active ground combat while an assigned member of either an infantry or a Special Forces unit, of brigade size...
—Related award
- General Assault Badge
The General Assault Badge was awarded to personnel of the German Wehrmacht who were not in infantry or tank units during World War II.Instituted on 1 June 1940, the General Assault Badge was awarded to assault engineers as well as to those troops who supported infantry and armor units in combat...
and Close Combat ClaspThe Close Combat Clasp is a German military award instituted on 25 November 1942 for achievement in hand to hand fighting in close quarters. The Close Combat Clasp was worn above the upper left uniform pocket...
—similar World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
German ArmyThe German Army is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. Following the disbanding of the Wehrmacht after World War II, it was re-established in 1955 as the Bundesheer, part of the newly formed West German Bundeswehr along with the Navy and the Air Force...
badges
External links