APPLICANT REQUESTS:  That he be awarded the Expert Infantryman Badge (EIB), the Bronze Star Medal (BSM) and the Chosin Few Medal. (The Chosin Few Medal is apparently an honorary award established by former members of the 7th Infantry Division who served in Korea during that war.)  He states that he was advised that he could receive the BSM because he had been awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB).

PURPOSE:  To determine whether the application was submitted within the time limit established by law, and if not, whether it is in the interest of justice to excuse the failure to timely file.

EVIDENCE OF RECORD:  The applicant's military records were lost or destroyed in the National Personnel Records Center fire of 1973.  Information herein was obtained from alternate sources.

He was inducted on 22 November 1948 and released from active duty after 1 year and 10 days service.  He was recalled to active duty on 11 October 1950 and served 7 Months and 17 days in Korea as a light weapons infantryman.  He was honorably separated to the Enlisted Reserve Corps on 8 September 1951 in the grade of corporal.

His awards include the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Good Conduct Medal and the CIB.

The applicant’s available records do not show that he was awarded the EIB.  Nor, is he eligible for the BSM for reasons indicated below.

Army Regulation 600-8-22, Military Awards, provides, in pertinent part, that to be eligible for the Expert Infantryman Badge, an enlisted person must have a primary military occupational specialty within career management field 11, must meet the prerequisites and must take the test with an infantry unit of at least battalion size.  The permanent award of badges will be announced in permanent orders by commanders authorized to make the award.

The same regulation provides that, subsequent to the cessation of hostilities during World War II, the regulation governing the award of the Bronze Star Medal was changed, in part, to provide for the award of this decoration to those individuals who had been awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge or the Combat Medical Badge for meritorious achievement in ground combat against an armed enemy between 7 December 1941 and 2 September 1945.

Title 10, U.S. Code, section 1552(b), provides that applications for correction of military records must be filed within 3 years after discovery of the alleged error or injustice.  Failure to file within 3 years may be excused by a correction board if it finds it would be in the interest of justice to do so.

DISCUSSION:  The alleged error or injustice was, or with reasonable diligence should have been discovered on 8 September 1951, the date of separation.  The time for the applicant to file a request for correction of any error or injustice expired on 8 September 1954.

The application is dated 2 February 1994 and the applicant has not explained or otherwise satisfactorily demonstrated by competent evidence that it would be in the interest of justice to excuse the failure to apply within the time allotted.

DETERMINATION:  The subject application was not submitted within the time required.  The applicant has not presented and the records do not contain sufficient justification to conclude that it would be in the interest of justice to grant the relief requested or to excuse the failure to file within the time prescribed by law.

BOARD VOTE:

                      EXCUSE FAILURE TO TIMELY FILE

                      GRANT FORMAL HEARING

                      CONCUR WITH DETERMINATION




		Karl F. Schneider
		Acting Director