BOARD DATE:	  9 August 2012

		DOCKET NUMBER:  AR20120003523 


THE BOARD CONSIDERED THE FOLLOWING EVIDENCE:

1.  Application for correction of military records (with supporting documents provided, if any).

2.  Military Personnel Records and advisory opinions (if any).


THE APPLICANT'S REQUEST, STATEMENT, AND EVIDENCE:

1.  The applicant requests reconsideration of his application for award of the Combat Infantryman Badge.   

2.  The applicant states he trained and served as an 11B, Light Weapons Infantryman.  He denies having been an 11D, his duty position was as a machine gunner and at no time did he drive either a truck or an armored vehicle. 

3.  The applicant provides an annotated copy of his prior Army Board for Correction of Military Records (ABCMR) decisional document and copies of personal statements recounting his service in Vietnam.

CONSIDERATION OF EVIDENCE:

1.  Incorporated herein by reference are military records which were summarized in the previous consideration of the applicant's case by ABCMR in Docket Number AR20110009693, on 1 November 2011.

2.  The applicant's only officially awarded military occupational specialty (MOS) is shown as an 11B, Light Weapons Infantryman.

3.  His DA Form 20 (Enlisted Qualification Record ) shows that while serving in Vietnam he was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division.  His duty MOS is listed as an 11D for the entire period he was in Vietnam.  His principal duty assignment is shown as a Light Truck Driver from 25 July 1966 through 2 February 1967 and as a Personnel Carrier Driver from 3 February 1967 through 28 June 1967.  Upon return to the Continental United States his duty MOS is shown as an 11B with a principal duty as a Mortar Gunner.

4.  Army Regulation 600-8-22 (Military Awards) sets forth the Army policy and procedures for award of the Combat Infantryman Badge.  In effect it states that there are three basic requirements for award of the Combat Infantryman Badge.  The enlisted Soldier must have an infantry specialty, he must be satisfactorily performing infantry duties while assigned or attached to an infantry unit of brigade, regimental, or smaller size during any period such unit was engaged in active ground combat, and he must be personally present and under hostile fire while serving in that unit. 

5.  Paragraph 8-6b of the awards regulation further states the definition or requirement to be "engaged in active ground combat" has generated much dialogue over the years as to the original intent of the Combat Infantryman Badge.  In 1963 and 1965 Department of the Army (DA) messages to the senior Army commander in the Southeast Asia theater of operations authorized award of the Combat Infantryman Badge to otherwise qualified personnel "provided he are personally present and under fire."  U.S. Army Vietnam regulations went so far as to require documentation of the type and intensity of enemy fire encountered by the Soldier.  The intended requirement to be "personally present and under fire" has not changed.

6.  U.S. Army Vietnam (USARV) Regulation 672-1 (Decorations and Awards) governed the awards program in the Army theater of operations during the Vietnam conflict.  The regulation provided that the Combat Infantryman Badge was authorized for award to infantry personnel who were members of infantry platoons and squads in armored cavalry squadrons and regiments.  Additionally, the company and battalion designations used for subordinate units of the 7th Cavalry and the other "cavalry" regiments indicates that they and their parent 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) were, in fact, infantry organizations.  Appendix V states that during the Vietnam era the Combat Infantryman Badge was awarded only to enlisted individuals who held and served in MOS 11B, 11C, 11D, 11 F, 11G, or 11H.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:

1.  Personnel serving in both the MOS 11B and 11D qualify for award of the Combat Infantryman Badge if they also meet the other requirements for the award.  

2.  As noted in the prior ABCMR decisional document, in order to qualify for the Combat Infantryman Badge, a service member must not only hold an infantry MOS and serve with a qualifying unit, there must also be evidence that they were personally present with the qualifying unit when it was engaged in active ground combat, and that they participated in such ground combat.  Holding an infantry MOS, being assigned to a qualifying unit, going on patrols, and/or receiving campaign credit alone are insufficient to support award of the Combat Infantryman Badge.

3.  The applicant's personal statements are insufficient to document that he was personally present with the qualifying unit when it was engaged in active ground combat.

4.  A duty assignment and/or duty MOS recorded on a DA Form 20 does not necessarily reflect the actual duty a Soldier may have been performing.  Often duty assignments were recorded based on an available manning positions and not the actual duty an individual preformed.

5.  However, the record does not contain and the applicant has not provided any documentation (other than his personal assertions) that his duty positions and duty MOS's (emphasis added) were anything other than as listed on his DA Form 20 and reported in the prior ABCMR decisional document.

6.  Based on the above facts and findings, there is insufficient evidence to warrant award of the Combat Infantryman Badge or correction of the applicant's DA Form 20 to show different duty positions or duty MOS's as recorded in the prior ABCMR decisional document.

BOARD VOTE:

________  ________  ________  GRANT FULL RELIEF 

________  ________  ________  GRANT PARTIAL RELIEF 

________  ________  ________  GRANT FORMAL HEARING

___X_____  __X______  _X___  DENY APPLICATION


BOARD DETERMINATION/RECOMMENDATION:

The evidence presented does not demonstrate the existence of a probable error or injustice.  Therefore, the Board determined that the overall merits of this case are insufficient as a basis to amend the decision of the ABCMR set forth in Docket Number AR20110009693, on 1 November 2011.



      _______ _  X _______   ___
               CHAIRPERSON
      
I certify that herein is recorded the true and complete record of the proceedings of the Army Board for Correction of Military Records in this case.


ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont)                                         AR20120003523





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ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont)                                         AR20120003523



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