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thedrifter
09-27-05, 08:57 PM
October 03, 2005
Army created new badge recognizing troops in combat
By Gordon Lubold
Times staff writer


If the Marine Corps is concerned about recognizing Marines for combat action, it could take a page from the Army.

Not that it would. But it could.

Last year, Army leaders began to hear from support soldiers in Iraq who were concerned that they weren’t getting the recognition for combat duty that their infantrymen brethren were. Because the Army didn’t have a combat device for those outside the infantry, many soldiers were left out in the cold.

As a result, the service scrapped plans for a new close-combat badge for combat-arms soldiers and instead created a Combat Action Badge for all soldiers.

The new badge, which debuted in May, recognizes soldiers who don’t officially fill combat-arms jobs, but who nonetheless deserve recognition for their combat actions.

Soldiers can be eligible to wear the badge for engaging the enemy while performing duties in a hostile area, but they don’t have to be assigned to a combat-arms unit or to one that is organized for close combat. Soldiers providing convoy security, for example, could rate the new badge.

Specifically included among the combat actions that qualify soldiers for the new decoration are attacks by mortars, rockets, rocket-propelled grenades, improvised explosives and suicide bombers.

The Army’s other combat devices include:

• The Combat Infantryman Badge is for infantry or Special Forces officers or enlisted soldiers who have performed satisfactorily while engaged in active ground combat while assigned or attached to an infantry, Ranger or SF unit.

• The Combat Medic Badge is for medical soldiers assigned or attached to ground combat-arms units who satisfactorily perform medical duties while the unit is engaged in active ground combat. Medics must be present and under fire to rate the badge.

Soldiers who serve in a combat theater are also authorized to wear their unit patch on their right shoulder as a “combat patch.” They can continue to wear it even after they are assigned to another unit.

It’s not likely the Marine Corps would go this route. The Corps, which already has five times the number of medals and ribbons than it did 100 years ago, is sensitive to the notion of creating new devices.

It’s more likely that eligibility requirements for the Combat Action Ribbon would be revised to better reflect performance under fire — whatever kind of fire that may include.

“If we receive defining guidance such as we did in Vietnam, that would pretty much cover what’s going on in Iraq right now,” said Sgt. Maj. Robert Colon, the sergeant major for II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Ellie

thedrifter
09-27-05, 08:59 PM
October 03, 2005
Recognizing combat
It’s time for new rules for the ‘been there, done that’ ribbon, Marines say
By Gordon Lubold
Times staff writer

It’s a simple little ribbon, not even 2 inches long, but it fills Marines with emotion, passion and, increasingly, discontent.The Combat Action Ribbon is many a Marine’s proudest decoration, the one that tells the world you’ve “been there, done that.” But the insurgency in Iraq is pointing out that the rules for getting the ribbon may no longer apply.

Now, senior Corps officials are trying to figure out whether the eligibility requirements should be loosened, made more strict or just left alone.

They’re walking a fine line. If they broaden eligibility too much, the Corps’ most coveted decoration becomes commonplace. If the officials clamp down, they could prevent a Marine on convoy duty who experiences the deadly force of a roadside bomb from getting one.

No matter what, change is in the air. When Sgt. Maj. John Estrada, the Corps’ top enlisted Marine, called his sergeants major together for an annual meeting in Washington in August, one of the most heated discussions concerned the CAR.

Recent Iraq vets told stories of Marines whose performance under fire was extraordinary but who, amazingly, didn’t rate a CAR. Others said that although it’s time to change the rules, it is no time to go overboard, either.

Most agreed that the current eligibility requirements aren’t doing the trick. Among those who attended Estrada’s meeting was Sgt. Maj. Robert Colon, sergeant major of II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C. In an interview Sept. 21, Colon said the sergeants major were unanimous in their opinion of the ribbon regs.

“Every single one of them in that room feel that the award needs to be better defined,” he said. “And it needs to change because there are a lot of Marines out there that are not receiving the kind of recognition they deserve.”

Blue, red, yellow — and gray

The CAR was established in 1969 to recognize Marines’ service in direct combat.

As Lance Cpl. Terry Hudson, 21, a machine gunner from Marion, Ohio, with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, puts it:

“People look at you a little different when you have the Combat Action Ribbon.” It’s more than just a deployment ribbon, he said in an interview at a mall in Jacksonville, N.C., on Sept. 20. “This is something else.”

So coveted is the ribbon that the question of who rates it and who doesn’t has stirred controversy over the years. Some commanders interpret the requirements liberally, others are far more conservative. Some say commanders who are aviators give it away, others say ground pounders are too miserly.

And then there are different campaigns. During Vietnam, awarding of the ribbon varied. During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Marine commanders issued them “fairly liberally,” according to a series of briefing slides on the issue presented at the sergeants major symposium. In that war, the ribbon was given to most Marines simply for showing up in Kuwait.

The rules were changed after the Kosovo campaign. Under the old regulations, a Marine had to fire back after being fired upon to rate the CAR. But recognizing that the rules of engagement sometimes limited a Marine’s ability to shoot back, Corps officials decided in 2000 that returning fire wasn’t necessary to rate the ribbon.

Then came the insurgency in Iraq. Guerrilla warfare with no front lines and no rear. Random mortar attacks. Improvised explosive devices. Car bombs and suicide bombers. The criteria for the ribbon — “bona fide ground or surface combat fire-fight or action during which he or she was under enemy fire” — began to sound as dated as challenging someone to a pistol duel at 20 paces.

Suddenly, Marines in support roles who wouldn’t normally be engaged with the enemy in bona fide combat were finding themselves very much engaged. And because the insurgency was harnessing non-traditional weaponry — C4 explosives, lead pipes and cell phones — the regulations were becoming cloudy.

“The Combat Action Ribbon, it’s hard to say who should get it,” said Hudson, whose unit recently returned from Iraq. “That insurgent, he set that IED to kill you. That’s his way of fighting you. You might not take direct rounds, but you’re engaging that enemy and he’s engaging you.”

When is it combat?

Although many Marines were receiving CARs anyway, many were not. That’s when Lt. Gen. John Sattler, commander of I Marine Expeditionary Force, along with others, began to push for a review.

“I think we’re looking real hard at the Combat Action Ribbon,” Sattler said Aug. 18. It’s important that eligibility requirements are not too stringent and that they are being evenly applied, he said.

Eligibility requirements for the ribbon have always been open to interpretation. Given the insurgency in Iraq, there is no telling how some commanders will interpret what qualifies as an eligible combat action, Marines say.

The Corps has issued a total of 63,352 CARs since Sept. 11, 2001.

For example, take the vehicle commander of a 7-ton truck in Iraq. The commander’s vehicle drove over an IED and exploded, injuring him, his driver and the gunner. The Marine directed the driver to get the vehicle off the roadway to leave a path for the convoy, and told his gunner to sweep the area for the enemy.

Each of the Marines in the vehicle received a Purple Heart, of course, but no one received a CAR, said Colon, who used the story as an example of how out-of-whack the rules are. He thinks that, at the very least, the vehicle commander is commendable for keeping his head and performing well while under attack.

“The way we know combat, we always picture a firefight where we receive fire and return fire,” Colon said. “Today, that’s not the way it is.”

Colon believes the ribbon should be awarded on a “case-by-case basis,” and not just to anyone who was in an attack.

Reacting the right way

One of the key criteria for the CAR is how Marines perform after they’ve been attacked. That’s important to someone like Wilson Leech III, a former infantry officer who left the service earlier this year. Leech led Headquarters and Service Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, a battalion that single-handedly held the city of Ramadi in the restive Sunni triangle during a seven-month deployment last year. Leech’s support unit performed like a traditional line company, assisting in raids, clearings and other operations.

When the 2/4 first arrived in Ramadi, the guidelines for who got CARs and who didn’t were a bit murky among the many battalions serving in Iraq. Then a senior division official declared that any Marine who received fire of any kind and reacted with offensive action, or acted accordingly under fire, would rate one.

Leech, who lives in Oceanside, Calif., said most of his Marines received CARs. “I had one or two guys that were known cowards,” Leech said. “They were in the turret and crunched down and just lost it. I would say that that man does not rate” the ribbon.

But if Marines receive fire, or endure an IED explosion and do something in response, then they should generally be recognized for performing under fire, he said.

Senior Marine leaders are discussing the issue and soliciting input from the field, said a Marine official familiar with the review. It’s not clear when the review will be complete, but it looks as if commanders will have more clarity on the issue by the time I MEF returns to Iraq next spring.

Many hope the leaders fix the problems with the eligibility requirements. Just don’t fix them too much, Marines say.

“I think it shouldn’t be too easy to get,” said Lance Cpl. Justin Shivley, 20, a native of Charleston, W.Va., and a Reserve combat engineer attached to 3/2.

“It loses its value when a lot of people rate it.”

Gordon Lubold covers enlisted issues. He can be reached at glubold@marinetimes.com or at (703) 750-8639.

C. Mark Brinkley contributed to this report from Jacksonville, N.C.

Ellie

thedrifter
09-27-05, 09:01 PM
October 03, 2005

What do you think?



Do the eligibility requirements for the Combat Action Ribbon accurately reflect the type of combat Marines are seeing in Iraq and Afghanistan? How, if at all, should they be changed? Let us know what you think.

To sound off, e-mail us at marinelet@marinecorpstimes.com.

jegries
09-28-05, 02:35 PM
Don't forget their "I've never earned a medal" medal. You know where you stand when policy is dictated by those who complain.

Nagalfar
09-28-05, 02:56 PM
"The new badge, which debuted in May, recognizes soldiers who don’t officially fill combat-arms jobs, but who nonetheless deserve recognition for their combat actions." HUH??? I understand what they are doing.. I just cant believe they are actually doing this.

I am reminded of a song... went something like... Tear drops keep falling on my head.. but that dont mean my eyes will soon be turning red..

gesshh you have to love how in touch the Army is with is "troops".. I am certain even the Boy Scouts have to earn their awards.. maybe the Army could take a look into a Boy Scout manual and see how the reward system is suppose to work, I know I know.. I am being much to hard on them.. I might hurt someones feelings...

Hummm.. maybe I could put in for a "I hurt someone in the Army's feelings award" or is that a unit citation??