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    It’s not about badges anymore, Expert Infantry Badge Compeition 2016

    EIB 2016

    Photo By Sgt. Aura Conejos | Sgt. Timothy Sharpe, team leader, Co. C, 1st Battalion, 35th Armored Regiment, 2nd...... read more read more

    FORT BLISS, TX, UNITED STATES

    04.15.2016

    Story by Spc. Aura Conejos 

    2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division

    This year’s 1st Armored Division Expert Infantry Badge competition began in the early morning hours, April 11, on Fort Bliss, Texas. Over 600 Soldiers showed up in waves, separated by their age group. The initial event, a physical fitness test, required a score of eighty-percent or better to continue their journey.

    For the next five days, competitors conducted day and night land navigation, 10 medical and patrolling tasks, respectively, weapon handling and knowledge, a 12 mile road march in under three hours, immediately followed by a final medical evaluation exercise, Objective Bull, and Skedco pull.

    Any mistake could send them packing until next year. Competitors are graded at each station and only allotted two task failures on any task before being sent away.

    EIB has developed its own terminology. For those Soldiers hanging on with only one more red mark until they’re gone, they’re considered, ‘Blade Runners’. This iteration of EIB saw only 14, ‘True Blue’, finishers. That is, those Soldiers without any task failures for the duration of the competition.

    One of those 14, 1st Lt. Daigoroh L Abreu, Co. B, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st AD, was the first to cross the finish line after marching 12 miles. This was his returning year to EIB, after failing last year.

    “Obviously nobody likes to fail,” said Abreu. “I took it as a learning experience, moved forward with it and progressed. I had the end goal in mind and tried my best to just crush it.”

    After the early morning 12-mile road march and final Objective Bull, April 15, 74 Soldiers stood before their friends, families, and commanding staff to be pinned with the coveted EIB above the U.S. Army patch on their uniforms.

    Though the competition was physically and mentally demanding, Abreu said the hardest part of the week was balancing being a candidate and caring for his Soldiers and responsibilities in the rear. This competition was a warm-up for him, as he will be leaving for Ranger School within a week of this event.

    Spc. Joshua Martinez, Co. A, 1-6 IN, 2/1, came to compete for his EIB for the first time and is now heralded a first-time, ‘GO’, Soldier.

    Martinez said he did not focus on the reward at the end, but rather, focused on being present to complete each task to standard as he went through the event.

    The competition can be intimidating for younger Soldiers.

    Martinez gave his advice.

    “Get on a personal level with the instructors,” he said. “They’re pretty open and friendly and will be here as late as they have to be in order to get each Soldier to pass.”

    “That’s what I did and I passed,” Martinez concluded. “If you really want it, you’ll go and get it.”

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 04.15.2016
    Date Posted: 05.14.2016 10:57
    Story ID: 198111
    Location: FORT BLISS, TX, US

    Web Views: 287
    Downloads: 1

    PUBLIC DOMAIN