FORT SILL, Okla. (Dec. 14, 2015) -- Of the many skill badges that the Army offers one of the most prestigious, difficult to earn, and open to the select few in the 68 medical series is the Expert Field Medical Badge, or EFMB.
Recently three Soldiers from Fort Sill completed this grueling process and were awarded the coveted badge.
Spc. John Harlow, Reynolds Army Community Hospital (RACH) lab technician; Spc. Kaleb Richardson, RACH X-ray technician; and Sgt. Jarret Antal, 434th Field Artillery Brigade medic, were awarded their EFMB, Nov. 30, after completing the 10-day competition at Fort Hood, Texas.
The three were part of a group of 20 Soldiers who traveled from Fort Sill to Fort Hood to compete. The 15 percent pass rate is standard across the Army for all EFMB participants which demonstrates the difficulty in earning the badge.
"We began our training about three months prior to the competition," Richardson said.
There were prerequisites that had to be met, Harlow said.
"Before you can even be considered to compete you must have your cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certification, a current Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) and a Weapons Qualification Card that is within 12 months of the test," Harlow said.
In addition to the prerequisites, the EFMB was broken down into four areas with the non-military occupational specialty specific communication tasks and warrior skills tasks comprising two of the groups. Emergency medical tasks and evacuation tasks made up the medic-specific portions.
"Out of all the warrior skills that we went through the most difficult was the night land navigation course," Richardson said. "We lost most of the participants after that event."
Harlow agreed.
"A smaller group of Soldiers from Fort Sill had just competed for the EFMB at Fort Bliss (Texas)," said Harlow. "All of them failed to complete the night land nav portion and were sent home, so Richardson, Antal and I were all very aware of the difficulty of that event."
The medical portions of the competition are also some of the most difficult.
"These are tasks that any medic would normally perform in a combat environment," said Antal, "but since we are being graded on how we conduct these tasks, each one has to be done in the very specific step-by-step way it is laid out in the field manuals."
"There is no room for error," added Richardson. "If you skip one step you will receive a no-go on that event and you are done."
Combined with the physicality of the events and the 20-hour days, fatigue starts to set in and routine tasks the medics may have performed a thousand times before, such as a casualty assessment, can become very difficult.
"It is during those times when your training kicks in and you don't even think about what you are doing," said Harlow.
The culminating event was a 12-mile march that had to be completed within three hours while carrying a full and very specifically packed rucksack.
"Once you finish the ruck march you have to empty your rucksack and it is inventoried by one of the graders. If you forgot to pack one item you are a no-go," said Richardson. "I was so tired by the time I finished I thought I had forgot to pack the extra set of ACUs. That is not a small item so I was starting to panic, but there they were buried in the bottom corner."
Though not everyone was awarded the EFMB all the participants shared a special bond.
"I can honestly say that I could not have made it through all this without the help and support of these two guys," said Richardson. "We have been together through every step of the training and testing and our next step is to help lead and mentor our fellow Soldiers that want to earn this badge next."
The next EFMB competition will be in April, and medics on Fort Sill are already training so that they, too, can earn their badges.
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