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3rd Award CMB?


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What would Qualify This Specialist To be Awarded 3 Awards of the Combat Medic Badge?

 

post-34986-0-00449700-1388518252.jpg
U.S. Army Spc. Blake Wise, a combat medic with 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, receives a Combat Medical Badge from Col. Bryan Owens, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division commander, at Forward Operating Base Brassfield-Mora, Iraq, Jan. 28, 2007. (Spc. Amanda Morrissey / Army)

 

 

This from the Federal Code of Regulations, Title 32, & July 2008

 

(e) Subsequent awards. Second and subsequent awards of the CMB are as follows:

 

1) Second and third awards of the CMB are indicated by superimposing 1 and 2 stars respectively, centered at the top of the badge between the points of the oak wreath. To date, a separate award of the CMB has been authorized for qualified soldiers who service in the follow four qualifying periods:

 

(i) World War II.

 

(ii) The Korean War.

(iii) Vietnam Conflict. Service in the Republic of Vietnam conflict combined with qualifying service in Laos; the Dominican Republic; Korea on the DMZ; El Salvador; Grenada; Joint Secruity Area, Panmunjom, Korea; Panama; and Southwest Asia Conflict; and Somalia regardless of whether a Soldier has served one or multiple tours in any or all of these areas. The Vietnam Conflict Era officially terminated on March 10, 1995.

 

(iv) Global War on Terrorism (Afghanistan, Operation ENDURING FREEDOM) and Iraq, Operation IRAQI FREEDOM.

 

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Probably an idiot S1 that ordered the wrong badge for presentation. Happens more than one would like to believe.

That would be a major oversite, how would they NOT know :lol:

 

 

:lol: Seems a bit young to have been both the Korean, Vietnam Wars and or Somiland- First Gulf War. Now if he was one of those 60 something NGs or Reservists we seen serving every so often.......Then I would say WOW!

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The NSN for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd awards are probably 1 digit off.....they ordered the third by mistake. Realized (or didn't) the day of presentation. They figured who'd notice? And in the back would be one or two people like us cringing the whole time while everyone else just smiled and clapped.

 

These ceremonies, unfortunately, became a joke after a while. They were more to parade around photo-ops for senior officers. I watched a Purple Heart ceremony where the Solder's platoon was asked to leave (the platoon who'd been in the firefight with the Soldier) because "there wasn't enough room for the brigade staff to watch and they had never seen anyone get a Purple Heart before" - Quote some Major. I was the Platoon Leader.

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This is Sergeant Henry Jenkins ( see the above MC page ) another 3rd Award CMB.

post-34986-0-30588800-1388520160.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://projects.militarytimes.com/citations-medals-awards/recipient.php?recipientid=24927

 

 

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=47919818

 

 

Trying to find out just how many 3rd Award CMB there were, so far it hard to find more info, maybe only Slagel and Jenkins.

 

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We had a 1-star drop a squad worth of our guys during the middle of their CIB award ceremony - these weren't people he knew, or a unit he'd ever visited before. He then proceeded to say quite a few politically-charged things at that ceremony that made us cringe, none of which I will repeat here (PM if you really must know). Then threatened to out-run all of us on a perimeter run (again, at a ceremony...in field uniforms...at an outlying FOB...) The whole thing was disjointed, and left a lot of us shaking our heads. In any case, he was later relieved for misconduct in an unrelated matter...but yes, many of those ceremonies are a joke.

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The NSN for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd awards are probably 1 digit off.....they ordered the third by mistake. Realized (or didn't) the day of presentation. They figured who'd notice? And in the back would be one or two people like us cringing the whole time while everyone else just smiled and clapped.

 

These ceremonies, unfortunately, became a joke after a while. They were more to parade around photo-ops for senior officers. I watched a Purple Heart ceremony where the Solder's platoon was asked to leave (the platoon who'd been in the firefight with the Soldier) because "there wasn't enough room for the brigade staff to watch and they had never seen anyone get a Purple Heart before" - Quote some Major. I was the Platoon Leader.

That's outrageous, I know what to say about that, but I don't want to get "POLITICAL" or "CYNICAL"

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Nah Patches - just typical. Squirrely, sounds like you got some of the same. Sounds like the kind of guy who shows up in a war zone to motivate you with stories of the national training center in 1993. Glad he was eventually relieved, but to most they're just good enough on paper to hang around and make others miserable.

 

At any rate, sorry to hijack the thread - but someone in that outfit definitely goofed on the CMB award.

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Nah Patches - just typical. Squirrely, sounds like you got some of the same. Sounds like the kind of guy who shows up in a war zone to motivate you with stories of the national training center in 1993. Glad he was eventually relieved, but to most they're just good enough on paper to hang around and make others miserable.

 

At any rate, sorry to hijack the thread - but someone in that outfit definitely goofed on the CMB award.

Right, the real test if we can find a Service Portrait in Dress Blues (ASU) of Wise stateside and see if he has this 3rd Award CMB above his rack.

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I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that they asked for it back and told the soldier he could buy it at the PX. Then they reused that one for the next ceremony. Again, personal experience.

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I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that they asked for it back and told the soldier he could buy it at the PX. Then they reused that one for the next ceremony. Again, personal experience.

For real!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Swag, thank's for adding that. A question, you seem by your Avatar to be knowlegable on the Med Corps, if so, was there the only two guys, Slagel and Jenkins that were awarded he 3rd Award Combat Medic Badge, or were there more? As unlike the 3rd Award Combat Infantryman Badge for the period of the Vietnam War, which lists all KNOWN recipients, there's none for the 3rd CMB, giving the impression that may in fact be only two recipients.

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Swag, thank's for adding that. A question, you seem by your Avatar to be knowlegable on the Med Corps, if so, was there the only two guys, Slagel and Jenkins that were awarded he 3rd Award Combat Medic Badge, or were there more? As unlike the 3rd Award Combat Infantryman Badge for the period of the Vietnam War, which lists all KNOWN recipients, there's none for the 3rd CMB, giving the impression that may in fact be only two recipients.

 

I can only find reference to two recipients, Slagel and Jenkins. There could be more out there. A search of army personnel records might yield that information, but that would be a hellacious task to undertake.

 

Kevin

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The last VN draftee just retired in 2011, so it is entirely plausible there are more 3x CMB recipients just not publically recorded. Lots of qualifying conflicts between VN and now.

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I can only find reference to two recipients, Slagel and Jenkins. There could be more out there. A search of army personnel records might yield that information, but that would be a hellacious task to undertake.

 

Kevin

Know how many 2nd Award CMBs there are Swag :lol: lets see, a WWII, Korea vet, a Korea, Vietnam vet, or WWII, Vietnam vet with the Medic not serving in Korea but in other places during that War, it would be phenomenal to see a list or get a number. On the 2nd Award CIB, I wonder if there's a roster, for some reason I kinda doubt it.

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  • 5 months later...

Here is a short video of SPC Wise sending a greeting home to his family:

 

http://www.dvidshub.net/video/259302/spc-blake-wise#.U663HECa-ig

 

Regarding the 3rd award of the CMB to SPC Wise, as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, it is possible that between Iraq and Aghganistan he served three separate combat tours during the Global War On Terrorism period. Someone in the chain of command may have misunderstood the award regulations and believe he was qualified for a separate award of the CMB for each tour. Or more innocently, someone may have decided to present him with a CMB with two stars to symbolically represent three separate combat tours serving as a combat medic with the understanding that officially he was only entitled to wear the badge for the first award.

 

I'm pretty sure I've seen references to soldiers too young to have served in the Gulf War period wearing second awards of the CIB on the mistaken belief that they were entitled to separate awards for their tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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  • 10 months later...
Garandomatic

I can't imagine the fortitude of a guy to do that job for three wars... I'd imagine cheating the odds and dealing with wounded men takes its toll on most mortals.

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  • 4 years later...

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