Combat Infantry Badge
by Mike Dankert
by Mike Dankert
Infantry Museum Fort Benning
One of the most important awards to us was the Combat Infantry Badge. It was the one medal that only infantrymen could earn. Unlike the ribbons that represented other medals, a CIB was metal. It was about 3 inches long and was a blue rectangular bar with a silver musket superimposed on the bar and an oak wreath behind the bar. Blue is the Army color designating infantry. A CIB was earned when a soldier engaged in active ground combat, a firefight.
Glyn and I got orders awarding the CIB August 30, 1969, but we had earned it much earlier. We earned it but did not actually receive the medal.
The CIB was a nice looking medal but not something to be worn on jungle fatigues. But being proud of having earned it I wanted to come up with something that I could wear on my fatigues. M-16 rounds come with cloth bandoliers with a strap connected to each end of the bandoliers and a large, black safety pin on the strap. We filled the bandoliers with M-16 magazines.
You could wear the bandolier like a sling or pin the strap to the middle of the bandolier, stick your arms through the holes and wear it to protect your chest. I thought that pin because of its connection to the M-16, the weapon of choice for the infantry, could be the symbolic CIB. So I started to wear a safety pin on the pocket flap of my fatigues. It caught on and others who had earned CIBs did the same.
Glyn and I got orders awarding the CIB August 30, 1969, but we had earned it much earlier. We earned it but did not actually receive the medal.
The CIB was a nice looking medal but not something to be worn on jungle fatigues. But being proud of having earned it I wanted to come up with something that I could wear on my fatigues. M-16 rounds come with cloth bandoliers with a strap connected to each end of the bandoliers and a large, black safety pin on the strap. We filled the bandoliers with M-16 magazines.
You could wear the bandolier like a sling or pin the strap to the middle of the bandolier, stick your arms through the holes and wear it to protect your chest. I thought that pin because of its connection to the M-16, the weapon of choice for the infantry, could be the symbolic CIB. So I started to wear a safety pin on the pocket flap of my fatigues. It caught on and others who had earned CIBs did the same.