Photo By Master Sgt. Raymond Drumsta | Sgt. 1st Class John Gallman (right) briefs candidates during the Expert Infantryman...... read more read more
CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait - Being an infantryman is pushing yourself to limit, then turning around and pushing yourself more, according to Maj. Brian Murphy, an expert infantryman and chaplain of the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, New York Army National Guard.
That's an apt description of Cpl. James Goff of Gainesville, Fla. as he struggled to finish a 12-mile march to complete the Expert Infantryman Badge (EIB) course, held here from Sept. 17 to 21.
"I had to dig deep inside myself to pass," said Goff, of 4th Battalion, 118th Infantry Regiment, South Carolina Army National Guard. Dizzy and dehydrated, Goff passed the finish line then promptly passed out, becoming the last of 11 Soldiers to complete the course and earn the right to wear the shining, infantry-blue badge with a silver musket emblazoned on it.
While it had been a test of brawn and brain for the winners and 162 other soldiers who competed, it had been a long, painstaking chore for the nearly 30 troops – most expert infantrymen themselves — who established and graded the course events here and at the nearby Udairi Range.
The course is also a training enhancer which encourages excellence, said 1st Lt. Jordan Hatfield, one of the course planners and evaluators from 4th Battalion.
"It's not all about the end result," said Hatfield, an expert infantrymen from Charleston, S.C. "It's about training."
Making the Course
The 4th Battalion began establishing the course about a month after assuming security-force and camp operations missions in Northern Kuwait around mid-April. Course board members and evaluators were selected from the 4th Battalion, the New York Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry and the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry of the 3rd Infantry Division.
Two dozen of the evaluators had earned the EIB themselves, surpassing the required ratio of course board members and evaluators to EIB candidates. Course participation is voluntary, but Soldiers must meet weight standards, qualify as experts with the M4 carbine, hold an infantry or special forces military occupational skill (MOS) or be commissioned officers in those areas, and be recommended by their commanders before becoming EIB candidates.
To earn the EIB, candidates must score 75 or more in each Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) event, identify three out of four points on day and night land navigation tests and correctly perform 80 percent of 30 Soldier tasks on three tactical decision lanes.
Free to select half of the tasks, board members chose ones 4th Battalion Soldiers needed training in, and developed tactical scenarios on the decision lanes to fit those tasks into. The board based one lane on a traffic-control point (TCP), another in an urban environment, and the third — known as the patrol lane — on strictly desert terrain.
Though the Udairi range has mock villages ready-made for the TCP and urban lanes, the board and evaluators had to create two patrol lanes from scratch. Not far from the villages, Hatfield found two canyons, bordered by steep, knife-edged ridges — the remnants of borax strip-mining operations.
The canyons resembled two bowling alleys, Hatfield said, but they contained a variety of terrain features, high ground and cover and concealment to test candidates on tasks such as individual movement techniques, using hand grenades and calling for and adjusting indirect fire.
They designed the lanes so the tasks would follow in a logical order, culminating at fighting positions where candidates were tested on recovering a claymore mine, marking unexploded ordnance (UXO) and calling in a UXO report, said patrol lane non-commissioned officer-in-charge Sgt. 1st Class Adrian Gadsden, of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Battalion.
Though they were able to utilize some natural hillocks in the canyons in their lane design, they had to build fighting positions, obstacles and targets with sandbags and other materials, said Gadsden, of Charleston, S.C. Built into crests of the knife-edge ridges, the final fighting positions overlooked buildings some distance away – targets candidates would call for and adjust fire on.
It took about a dozen soldiers to design and build the patrol lanes, Gadsden said. Graders and EIB board members also set up stations in a Camp Buehring area so candidates could practice the tasks, Hatfield and Gadsden said. These stations and trainers were available to the candidates for three days prior to the EIB testing, and they seemed to help, and even inspire them, he added.
“Guys were out there until 5 a.m., when the sun came up,” Hatfield recalled.
Goff and 1st Lt. Joshua Nance, a platoon leader in 4th Battalion, were grateful to the trainers. They did a good job helping them prepare, said Nance, an Iraq veteran who is from Charlotte, N.C.
“They told us everything we needed to know,” Nance said.
Sgt. Joseph Rabon, a 4th Battalion team leader from Aynor, S.C., said he used the training time to concentrate on what he considered simpler tasks, like functions checks on weapons. Soldiers sometimes develop their own habits with weapon systems, and forget safety measures which are part of the standard, he added.
“I felt if I could perfect those (simpler tasks), I’d have room for error on the bigger things,” Rabon said. “You have to go back to the book way of doing things, the right way.”
All Soldiers need to know the tasks, but the challenge of the EIB course is to do them in a stressful situation, while paying close attention to detail, Nance said. While the tasks themselves aren’t difficult, doing them for time in a tactical scenario is, he added.
“You’re being graded by the manual,” he stressed. While he studied all the tasks well, he focused on weapon systems, particularly loading and unloading procedures and setting the head space and timing on the .50 caliber machine gun.
The training gave candidates the ability to time themselves, which would pay dividends out on the lanes, Gadsden said.
Making the Grade
Immediately following the three-day train-up, the EIB course began with the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) and land navigation courses, which significantly reduced the field of candidates.
Conducted in a desert area without roads or terrain features, candidates could only use their compasses and pace counts – directions and distances – to pass the land navigation courses, Hatfield said. The night land navigation course was conducted during a new moon with almost no ambient light, and only 45 percent of the candidates passed the courses, he added.
“That’s where we lost a lot of people, night land navigation and (APFT),” he recalled.
Though he was physically prepared for the course, the lanes called for attentiveness to detail, and abiding by the old adage, “slow is smooth, smooth is fast,” Nance said.
“You knew what you had to do,” he said. “You had to plan out how to execute the lane.”
Staying calm, keeping his mind clear and not concentrating too hard helped him during the lanes, Rabon said.
He felt some stress because he didn’t know what to expect on the lanes, Goff said. But then his knowledge kicked in and he saw what he needed to do and did it, he recalled.
“Once I got on the lane I calmed down,” Goff said.
Not knowing what to expect was part of the lanes’ challenge, and he felt some “jitters of doing something new for the first time,” Nance said.
“Of course, I was extremely nervous, as everyone was,” he said. While his combat experiences had taught him some grace under pressure, he took some deep breaths, willed himself to be calm and called on his confidence – the belief that he would succeed – and drove on, Nance said.
Decisions tested on the patrol lanes — like eliminating an enemy threat before treating a casualty — reminded him of real-life situations he’d encountered in Iraq, Rabon said. But like his earlier EIB attempt, he missed with the grenades, he recalled.
Another realistic decision scenario involved engaging mock insurgents from a Humvee. There was a mock casualty between the Humvee and the enemy, and according to the scenario, candidates had to order the driver to close this gap so as not to endanger the casualty with friendly fire.
Many candidates failed to do this, and it reminded Goff of an axiom he learned in Iraq: “never fire past a buddy.”
The scenarios made the course more challenging, said Staff Sgt. Sean Shillington, a candidate from the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry, New York Army National Guard. He recalled becoming confused on the urban lane, then refocusing to finish with less than a minute to spare.
“I made it by the skin of my teeth,” said Shillington, who hails from Holley, N.Y. “It was more difficult than I anticipated.”
Only 11 candidates remained by the night of the 12-mile march, which was laid out on a course on Camp Buehring. In addition to 35-pound rucksacks, candidates had to carry M4 carbines and wear helmets.
With their fellow Soldiers walking along and cheering them on, candidates – laved in sweat – marched and often ran to finish the 12-mile course within the three-hour time limit.
Meanwhile, other candidates – in pain – were calling on their last reserves of strength and courage to make it. Shillington, for one, was feeling leg cramps and foot pain.
“About the 10-mile mark I hit a wall that was hard to get over,” he said. But his buddies reminded him that he was close to the goal that he’d worked so hard for.
Rabon felt relief at crossing the finish line.
“On the second time, I got my EIB,” Rabon said. “I had to work for it.”
Goff said he started feeling dizzy at about mile seven. Encouraged by the Soldiers with him, Goff also kept his eyes on the prize and thought of his loved ones.
“I didn’t want to come this far and fail,” Goff said. “I had nothing left to give but I gave more,” he added, recalling his walk to the finish.
When he came to beyond the finish line, Goff realized he’d made it.
“I felt amazing,” he said.
Speaking at the EIB award ceremony the following morning, Murphy said the winners had pushed themselves to the limit, which is what being in the infantry is all about. A former infantryman, Iraq veteran and EIB winner, Murphy spoke of the infantryman as “grunts” who “push through missions that others would quit,” and go where they’re needed, no matter the conditions.
“We get called to do the hard jobs,” said Murphy, of Cato, N.Y. “But that’s ok. That’s what an infantryman does. We push ourselves to the point of no return, then we push ourselves some more.”
Murphy told the winners to continue to drive on.
“Continue to know that you are among the best of the best today,” he concluded.
Shillington, who was chosen as the top graduate, said he was proud to be an expert in his field.
“I really didn’t see myself being the top graduate,” he said. “I guess I did something right.”
The EIB is something to strive for, and shows the U.S. Army’s continuing quest for improvement, Rabon said. It also reflects something about being an infantryman, he added.
“There’s more to the job than being a trigger-puller,” he said. “There’s always more to know.”
Goff agreed.
“The infantryman is actually very intelligent and quick on his feet,” Goff said. “It takes a strong person to be an infantryman.”
Earning the EIB takes physical strength, tactical knowledge and an attention to detail, Hatfield said.
“This thing is all about details, and the badge proves it,” he said. “It embodies everything an infantryman should be.”
| Date Taken: | 09.22.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 11.04.2012 14:41 |
| Story ID: | 97266 |
| Location: | CAMP BUEHRING, KW |
| Web Views: | 363 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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