FORT BRAGG, N.C. - Warfighters with the 82nd Airborne Division bestowed the title "expert" on 65 infantrymen Feb. 4 at Fort Bragg.
From a field of 544 candidates, 65 paratroopers with 1st Brigade Combat Team passed a week-long series of tests required for the Expert Infantry Badge - a silver musket on a sky-blue rectangle worn only by the best of the infantry.
"For the combat Soldier, the modern battlefield is both lethal and unforgiving," said brigade commander, Col. Mark L. Stock, to an audience of several hundred infantrymen at the awards ceremony Feb. 18. "That's especially true for infantrymen. Because of that, the Army recognized we have to award and recognize excellence and expertise."
Established in 1943 during the height of infantry training for World War II, the EIB today includes tests of physical fitness, land navigation, scenario-based tasks and a 12-mile foot march, all with time limits.
Stock said that the badge not only attested to the wearers' expert skills, but should also serve as a reminder to them of their duty to pass along those skills to all the Soldiers with whom they work, seniors, peers and subordinates alike.
Sgt. Maj. LaMarquis Knowles, the top noncommissioned officer with the Devil Brigade, implemented the EIB testing. The U.S. Army Infantry School picks 15 tasks that infantry of all units must test on, and allows each unit to select an additional 15 tasks that corresponds with its mission essential task list he said.
"The EIB training and testing are relevant to today's fight," said Knowles. "As part of a unit recently returned from combat, our Soldiers will tell you that the tasks they were tested on mirrored what they had to do on the battlefield. The selection of tasks made the testing both relevant and challenging."
Master Sgt. Joseph Andrade, a visiting advisor with the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Ga., said that 1st Brigade's planning and command-and-control was the best he had seen all year.
"Command Sergeant Major Knowles is a real perfectionist, and he obviously put a very squared-away operations sergeant major, Sergeant Major (Juan) Villarreal, in as his (noncommissioned officer in charge)," said Andrade.
"Sergeant Major Villarreal had already been in contact with the last unit that tested here to learn from them," he said.
Knowles attributed the high attrition rate to Soldiers taking the Army Physical Fitness Test for granted and to challenging day and night land navigation courses. Paratroopers were also challenged by the scenario-based skills tests, he said.
Candidates completed one scenario per day for three days. In each scenario, they had to execute eight of 10 tasks correctly in the allotted time. Scenarios included an entry-control point, a patrol and an urban environment, for a total of 30 tasks.
All 65 paratroopers who began the final event, a 12-mile muddy ruck march through a downpour, completed the event in the allotted three-hour time limit and were subsequently awarded the EIB, he said.
Only one Soldier, a Ranger-qualified platoon leader with Company B, 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, passed every test without deficiency, what infantrymen call "true blue" in reference to the infantry's adopted color.
That Soldier, 1st Lt. Walter Haynes from Atlanta, attributed his success to good training, a bit of luck and determination. His advice to future candidates was, "Do the training and don't quit. Anything is achievable in the Army."
Haynes was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for his achievement.
Testament to that advice were the youngest and the newest Soldiers of 1st Bn., 504th PIR to win the EIB, Pfc. Christopher Irick of Elizabethton, Tenn., and Pfc. Timothy Deberry of Roanoke Rapids, N.C.
In addition to the EIB, each was awarded the Army Achievement Medal.
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