Expert Infantrymen

At 7:30 Wednesday morning, 77 Infantrymen, including 30 multinational Soldiers from throughout Kosovo, stood in formation ready to undertake the Expert Infantryman Badge test at Camp Bondsteel July 19-21. They had passed all of the prerequisites – day and night land navigation, a timed 12-mile ruck march, qualified expert on their M-16, and attained at least 75 on each event of the Army Physical Fitness Test – 37 tasks and subtasks were all that stood between those Infantrymen and their coveted badge.
The sun beat down at nearly 100 degrees, without a cloud in sight, baking the mixture of camouflage face paint, sweat and dust onto their faces while the intermittent patterns of camo netting merely provided the illusion of shade.
The Soldiers trudged up and down the hills of Camp Bondsteel wearing their Advanced Combat Helmets and Load Bearing Vests, carrying a full battle load of ammunition in the blistering heat for three days of familiarization and three days of testing.
“You just sit there and sweat,” says Sgt. Matthew Jurecki, an EIB candidate from Task Force Patriot. “You camo up, you’re sweating. You drink water, you’re sweating.”
Earning the EIB was definitely no simple task. It required hours upon hours of training, day after day to become perfect at a multitude of tasks, to include map reading, first aid, individual movement techniques, donning a protective mask and working with several weapon systems.
“With all the hours we put into it, it seems like it’s been longer [than six days],” says Jurecki, “it’s been nonstop training from day to night.
“Once it started, just train, train, train… If you’re awake, you’re training. If you’re not eating, you’re training. And that’s pretty much it.”
The infantrymen who were serious about earning the award worked tirelessly, even after the hours of training and testing to ensure perfection.
“You’d hear at night going to bed, the action of the weapons out between the barracks, because they’re out there practicing and rehearsing,” says 1st Sgt. Kenneth Pitts, an EIB board member. “There are a few people who understand that the task may seem simple, but when the stress is increased, and you’re up there on the table to perform, there are a lot of things you might have forgotten, [and your] muscle memory hasn’t overcome your bad habits.”
Staff Sgt. Shawn Monette, an EIB grader says, “You walk out of the barracks [at night]… and you’ll see a group of 10 guys huddled around an M240B machine gun all night, until 12 at night and you’ll hear parts clinging and clanging back and forth, but no one gets upset, because we understand the importance of it.”
Earning the EIB is an important milestone in an infantryman’s career. “You know that when you see someone with an EIB, that person met that standard, which is extremely difficult for people to achieve,” says Pitts.
Monette adds, “[The EIB] lets you know that [the wearer] understands his job. If [someone] sees you wearing an EIB, it tells them that you know your job, you’re a good Soldier in your profession.”
The EIB – initially a combat badge – was established in 1943, along with the Combat Infantryman Badge. They were created as a way to boost the morale and prestige of the Infantry in Lt. Gen. Leslie J. McNair’s Army Ground Forces headquarters. The 1943 requirements for the EIB, according to War Department Circular 209, were to attain “the standards of proficiency established by the War Department,” or to satisfactorily perform “duty in action against the enemy.” The CIB was awarded for “exemplary conduct in action against the enemy,” or “duty in action against the enemy in a major operation as determined and announced by the theater commanders.”
In 1944 the requirements for both badges were altered by WD Circular 408. The CIB was to be awarded for “satisfactory performance of duty in ground combat against the enemy,” while the EIB would only be awarded for infantrymen who “attained the standards of proficiency established by the War Department.”
“The CIB is awarded if you’re infantry and you go into combat, and engage the enemy or are engaged by the enemy, which may happen, it may not. It may depend on your luck that day,” says Pitts. “The EIB is something you have to go out and earn. It doesn’t happen in a five minute fire-fight, it happens over the course of three days.”
With a long history behind it, the EIB has changed, the tasks have changed, the standards have changed. “However, what has not changed,” says Pitts, “is that those things that are done are to be done to 100 percent standard. If you get a 99 percent on these tests, you’re a ‘no go.’ You have to earn it many times in a row; it’s very unforgiving. That has not changed.”
While the EIB itself is difficult to earn, just getting the opportunity to try can be quite trying, especially for National Guard Soldiers. So having the chance to earn the badge in Kosovo is a huge opportunity.
“Back home we try to run the EIB once every couple of years,” says Pitts, “key word: try.” But with units always training up for imminent deployments, the EIB can take a back seat. “EIB is one of those things that, while it’s vital for the health of the unit, it doesn’t have the same immediacy when you have a deployment looming.”
“It’s excellent to give the Soldiers the opportunity to get something like this out of the way,” says Monette. “Because they’re active duty while they’re deployed, they’re around this environment 24 hours a day seven days a week, versus being back home, they may only see it once a month. Here it keeps things fresh.”
In general, Army training is focused on working cohesively as a team, but earning the EIB is one opportunity for infantrymen to prove their skills on a basic, individual level. “I’ve also been to ranger school,” says Pitts, “a lot of your success in ranger school depends on the team you’re with… whereas the Expert Infantryman’s Badge is completely on you and your attention to detail and your ability to rehearse and train for the exam.”
The individual Soldier’s abilities are a crucial element on the battlefield, and EIB testing is a good gauge for measuring a unit’s ability. “No matter how the odds are stacked up for or against you,” says Pitts, “if you have a lot of firepower, the logistics are all lined up, and the odds are with you, the Soldier, the American Soldier meeting the enemy Soldier on the battlefield has to be more proficient with his weapon, has to be more proficient at his individual tasks, the individual movement techniques and small unit tactics, in order to gain victory.
“Otherwise, all the complex planning, the superior logistics, it all goes to waste if you don’t win at that level. So the EIB is that one thing at the individual task level that allows us to check the standards of a Soldier.”
While the Soldiers stand alone at the moment of truth in front of the grader, it doesn’t, mean, however, that they do it all alone. “They get to a holding area,” says Monette, “and whatever task may be at hand that they’re about to tackle, they’ll go back and forth and quiz each other to make sure everyone’s on the same page and performing the task correctly before they let their buddy go off and test.”
Jurecki adds, “as soon as we said we were going for the EIB, [our superiors] automatically took us out of the mission and put us here… so we could totally focus, which was really good. If we didn’t do that, we might not have been able to make it.”
Over the decades, the infantrymen who have earned the EIB have only helped to increase the prestige of the award, while proving the caliber of generation after generation of Soldiers. But creating new EIB awardees requires EIB holders; EIB graders must have already earned their EIB.
“[The EIB] teaches our noncommissioned officers how to train others those tasks and pass on a certain mentality required in order to get that kind of perfection at those tasks,” says Pitts.
“We’re all out here, we’re all graders,” says Pitts. “And we’re running the EIB so there’s a certain level of camaraderie there. [The candidates] understand that we had to achieve that standard and we’re here to help [them] train and get others to pass the standard so that they enter our brotherhood.”
When the testing was complete, a few infantrymen had achieved perfection and entered that brotherhood.
“I feel worn out,” says Sgt. Matthew Jurecki after finishing his final station, earning his EIB. “I’m happy… I’m glad to be done with it.
“[Earning the EIB] means that I can pay attention to detail and I can react under pressure,” says Jurecki. “Those are two things that I think every Soldier should have. And to get your EIB, wearing it on your chest proves it.”
Qualifying to take the EIB test is difficult, but even more difficult is earning the badge. “There is a high attrition rate,” says Pitts. “It’s not uncommon for a brigade to send an entire brigade’s worth of infantrymen through, and you get about a dozen who graduate.”
Late Sunday morning, the American EIB candidates formed up again; 11 stood front-and-center to recieve the honor they worked so hard for.
“The average success rate is no higher than 10 percent,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Robert Jenks, MNTF(E) CSM in his address at the EIB pinning ceremony.
But knowing the odds only makes Soldiers want to try that much harder. “Anyone who’s going through this task wants it,” says Monette, “they have the drive within themselves.”
And time and again, they prove they have what it takes to be called an expert infantryman.

Supplemental
Prerequisites aside, the EIB test is comprised of 37 tasks and subtasks, all of which are graded on a go/no-go basis. To recieve a go, the Soldier must perform the task to 100 percent perfection.
There is, however, one slight reprieve. Candidates are allowed two first-time no-gos — they can fail a task once, but must perform to standard on their second try. If they fail an event twice, or fail an event after getting two first-time no-gos, they are disqualified from the EIB testing.
‘Blade runner’ is a term given to EIB candidates who have recieved both of their first-time no-gos and are only one away from disqualification.
Spc. Kevin Hissem, of D Co., TF Patriot, got off to a bad start. He was a blade runner after his first two stations.
“I thought I was out,” he says. “So I went and did grenades… I figured I may as well get something hard out of the way.”
He had five grenades to hit three targets. He hit all three targets on his first try, and went on to perform 34 tasks straight to perfection before tackling one of his buddies in celebration (pictured left).
“Train and train and train,” he says. “And if you really want it bad enough, keep training.”