Expert Infantryman Badge earned with skill and sweat

FORT DRUM — Almost 500 of them showed up Monday morning, but by the time the soldiers completed their last task at the week's end — a 12-mile road march in less than three hours with 35 pounds of gear — only 62 remained.

By the time most north country residents were drinking their morning coffee Friday, those 62 infantrymen from the 10th Mountain Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, on the march since 5:45 a.m., were in formation in the gymnasium at Magrath Sports Complex, sweat drying on their brows as their commander, Col. Willard M. "Bill" Burleson, pinned baby-blue badges onto their uniforms.

The soldiers had just earned the Expert Infantryman Badge, a recognition of their superior skills in the fundamentals of infantry operations: physical fitness, land navigation, weapons systems proficiency and quick, correct decision-making under fire, among other things.

"You have truly set yourself apart as expert infantrymen," Col. Burleson told the soldiers. "And so from now on, many people are going to look at you a little bit differently."

About 10 percent of those who try out for the badge make it through the rigorous testing, according to Army publications. Earning the distinction garners soldiers more promotion points than the badge for participating in combat. The week's tests required soldiers to take in orders quickly, then complete a course of tasks under time pressure with a high degree of accuracy.

The toughest course was one simulating operations at a traffic control point where combat had erupted, soldiers said. At one point in that course, a soldier had to move from a machine gun that had run out of ammunition to a truck with another weapon, with three simulated enemies firing at him from a distance. In the midst of that, a comrade on the ground called out for help, acting the part of a wounded soldier.

Should the soldier continue on toward the weapon in the truck, or stop to treat the wounded?

"You have to make the choice," 1st Lt. Bryan S. Fisher said, smiling and still catching his breath as he unloaded his pack following the road march. "The choice there is you use the weapon, so you don't become a casualty yourself."

In the week of testing, as in combat, there was little room for error — but in a war zone, making the wrong choice could mean the loss of more than a badge. That was the most important reason for the testing and the weeks of training that led up to it, Col. Burleson said.

In times of relative quiet — like the late 1980s, when the commander earned his blue badge — it was a way for soldiers who weren't facing certain or repeat deployments to prove themselves, to put their skills to a test. Now, with the 1st Brigade recently pulled back from a scheduled Iraq deployment and some speculating on a possible future mission in Afghanistan, "it really focuses an organization and the individuals on those simple, individual tasks that are critically important," Col. Burleson said.

"Doing this, we recognized 63 great young Americans today, but what it also did is it focused an entire 3,500-person brigade on the critical tasks that if you do them right, you're successful in combat. So it improves our readiness, as we get ready for whatever our next mission is, whenever it is."