The CAB

[Marcus H]

Combat Action Badge, not close.......I'm thinking Third Reich CCC's tut !

The CAB, featuring both a bayonet and grenade, may be awarded to any Soldier performing assigned duties in an area where hostile fire pay or imminent danger pay is authorized, who is personally present and actively engaging or being engaged by the enemy, and performing satisfactorily in accordance with the prescribed rules of engagement, according to its authorizing language. Award is not limited by one?s branch or military occupational specialty.

Not the most asthetic design, or quality materials used unlike past couterparts and certain periods.

Edited November 18, 2005 by Marcus H

[Marcus H]

Rev.

[Chris Boonzaier]

I dont like the grenade on it... if you are an average person, no military intrest you wont know what it is... looks like a knife with a "round thing of some sort" behind it.

[Stogieman]

What surprised me when this was announced was the central design being the K-Bar.... I understand we're talking soldiers here, but there's nothing else the US has ever done with such a blatently violent "image" about it. Cripes, the CIB still has a musket on it!!

[Chris Boonzaier]

Ahh... not even the K-bar--- that would at least have a historical aspect... this is that new M-16 bayonet.

I would have thought someone in the army historical dept could have made a nice design relevant to the traditions of the army.

This looks like a trendy design to go with the Rah-Rah-fight song.

[ehrentitle]

This badge was designed The U.S. Army Institute of Heraldry (TIOH) at Fort Belvior, Virginia. I believe this was a Chief of the Staff of the Army directed badge that was requested on short notice (I believe 30 or 60 days). So this may account for the less than impressive design. Generally when TIOH gets a request for a design they get guidance from the command that is requesting it and provide several different design drawings to choose from. So I imagine that part of the guidance was for it not to look like or be mistaken for the Combat Infantry or Expert Infantryman's badges. Thus the smaller size and the addition the bayonet and grenade. Kevin

[Chris Boonzaier]

The combat infantry badge is timeless.

This?

When the army changes bayonets again, this will simply be an outdated bayonet with a grenade noone recognises.

A k-Bar with a WW2 Era US grenade would have been more instantly recognisable.

This looks more like a close-cbt instructor badge. maybe folks who get it will have been in a combat situation, but will they have any connection to fighting with a bayonet?

Maybe the guy who did the design had "connections" or it was decided to go overboard with a design intended to raise moral?

An award like this should be timeless... this looks like a display in a surplass store

[Ed_Haynes]

But, you know, guys, the new "CAB" is neither the stupidest or the ugliest contemporary US badge. As evidence, the Air Force "Historian" badge. Almost makes me ashamed of being a historian.

[Stogieman]

Hi Ed, that's pretty funny!!

[ehrentitle]

The combat infantry badge is timeless.

This?

When the army changes bayonets again, this will simply be an outdated bayonet with a grenade noone recognises.

A k-Bar with a WW2 Era US grenade would have been more instantly recognisable.

This looks more like a close-cbt instructor badge. maybe folks who get it will have been in a combat situation, but will they have any connection to fighting with a bayonet?

Maybe the guy who did the design had "connections" or it was decided to go overboard with a design intended to raise moral?

An award like this should be timeless... this looks like a display in a surplass store

Not sure what your point is on the outdated bayonet with a grenade in the CIB. The rifle in the EIB & CIB is an outdated weapon, so are the crossed rifles of the Infantry branch insignia and the flintlock pistols of the Military Police branch insignia, the wheel in the Quartermaster & Transportation branch insignia, etc... Can you tell what models they are without looking them up? When the CAB is worn long enough it will be instantly recognized for what it represents. What is important to Infantrymen (and ex-Infantrymen like me) is that this badge is never mistaken for the CIB.

The CAB may not be an elegant design, but I see soldiers here everyday wearing them with pride. The Field Artillery and Armor Branches have been asking for an "equivalent" to the Infantry's CIB for decades. The CAB fills this need as well as giving other non-Infantry soldiers who have been involved in direct combat a badge. Kevin

Edited November 18, 2005 by ehrentitle

[Chris Boonzaier]

Not sure what your point is on the outdated bayonet with a grenade in the CIB. The rifle in the EIB & CIB is an outdated weapon, so are the crossed rifles of the Infantry branch insignia and the Muskets of the Military Police branch insignia, the wheel in the Quartermaster & Transportation branch insignia, etc... Can you tell what models they are without looking them up? When the CAB is worn long enough it will be instantly recognized for what it represents. What is important to Infantrymen (and ex-Infantrymen like me) is that this badge is never mistaken for the CIB.

The CAB may not be an elegant design, but I see soldiers here everyday wearing them with pride. The Field Artillery and Armor Branches have been asking for an "equivalent" to the Infantry's CIB for decades. The CAB fills this need as well as giving other non-Infantry soldiers who have been involved in direct combat a badge. Kevin

Hi Kevin,

I meant, the musket on the CIB is a timeless design, a traditional kind of thing, if you wore it in 1880 or 2080 even a woman in the street would know what was pictured.

For my taste the CAB is to specific, using a grenade that most folks will not recognise as a grenade and a bayonet that I dont think has entered military folklore like the musket on the CIB.

I agree that the CAB is needed, but (once again, for my taste) would have held out for a more timeless design. I think the CIB and the combat medic badges succeed design wise, the CAB falls short.

[Andy Hopkins]

Actually, "timeless" wasn't a word used by the guys in WWII to describe the CIB. Many thought it was ugly, and I would venture to say that, like the CAB, it was treated w/ a healthy amount of derision by the old school of the Army when it was first introduced. Of course today it has become a coveted symbol of combat experience. Not because of the design, but because of what it has come to represent...

[Chris Boonzaier]

I guess it depends on what one finds to be visually pleasing.

Of course, as you say, to the guy who gets it the symbolism is most important.

I am sure I once saw a CIB style badge with a tank on it? Was that unofficial?

So you have a Infantry badge, now a general combat badge with a crossed bayonet and grenade... sounds somehow familiar... do you think the guy who designed it collects German awards

[Dave Danner]

I am sure I once saw a CIB style badge with a tank on it? Was that unofficial?

Yes. There was also an unofficial Combat Artilleryman's Badge. People basically took a CIB, removed the rifle, repainted the plate in the appropriate branch color, and put the appropriate branch insignia on top (tank for armor, crossed cannons for artillery).

[ehrentitle]

Yes. There was also an unofficial Combat Artilleryman's Badge. People basically took a CIB, removed the rifle, repainted the plate in the appropriate branch color, and put the appropriate branch insignia on top (tank for armor, crossed cannons for artillery).

The "unofficial" and unauthorized Combat Armor Badge and Combat Artilleryman's badges were made by recognised insignia firms and they are several floating around out there in the collector community. If memory serves, I recall someone telling me that some of these were also made and worn "in country" during the Vietnam War. The Armor community was pushing a combat armor badge initative up to a couple of years ago when the Chief of Armor turned it down.

Kevin

[Chris Boonzaier]

almost a year has passed here.... I am sure we have a few memebrs wh have recieved this badge?

any photos out there of them in uniform with it on their chests?

[Jim Baker]

Oh whatever......

It's UGLY. BUTT UGLY.

[Paul R]

Thank God they do not give this one to Coasties... I am just glad that I do not have to wear it!

[peter monahan]

I dont like the grenade on it... if you are an average person, no military intrest you wont know what it is... looks like a knife with a "round thing of some sort" behind it.

I'm an above average person (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!) with a considerable interest in military stuff and it still looks like a knife with a round thing behind it!

BTW, did it ever occur to you that half the people you know are below average?

Peter