{"id":52091,"date":"2025-10-16T14:22:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T14:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/10\/16\/soldiers-push-limits-to-compete-for-expert-badges\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:28:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:28:51","slug":"soldiers-push-limits-to-compete-for-expert-badges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2025\/10\/16\/soldiers-push-limits-to-compete-for-expert-badges\/","title":{"rendered":"Soldiers push limits to compete for expert badges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Soldiers of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command recently undertook two of the Army\u2019s most challenging physical assessments by testing for the Expert Soldier Badge and Expert Field Medical Badge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From September into early October, soldiers underwent a series of intense physical challenges at Smith Barracks in Baumholder, Germany. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAll the soldiers are showing high levels of proficiency. Everyone who trains and tests here leaves better prepared, and that directly builds combat-ready formations,\u201d Command Sgt. Maj. Andrew A. Decola, noncommissioned officer in charge of the EFMB testing, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/news\/549896\/soldiers-around-21st-tsc-compete-e2b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/news\/549896\/soldiers-around-21st-tsc-compete-e2b\">said in a release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tests saw soldiers undergo a series of demanding drills, conduct day and night land navigation, handle weapons seamlessly across multiple tactical lanes, demonstrate expertise in various skill areas and, finally, perform a timed, 12-mile ruck march in under three hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both badges were modeled after the Expert Infantryman Badge and designed to have a challenging qualification threshold. While <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2021\/09\/28\/soldiers-may-soon-have-2-3-chances-a-year-for-infantry-soldier-and-field-medical-badges\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2021\/09\/28\/soldiers-may-soon-have-2-3-chances-a-year-for-infantry-soldier-and-field-medical-badges\/\">some tasks are shared<\/a> across both tests, the standards for qualifying for each badge are unique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ESB, introduced in 2019, was designed to provide soldiers who are neither infantrymen nor combat medics with an opportunity to strive to overcome similar challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Testing for the EFMB, by contrast, is reserved specifically for combat medics and is comprised of a series of high-pressure tests that place the toughest demands on their skills at handling complex medical emergencies in combat and evacuation scenarios. The pass rate for the EFMB is below 20%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is not a badge to award so that the entire Army now has an \u2018expert\u2019 badge to wear. As it is now, not every infantryman or Special Forces soldier earns the EIB and not every medic earns the EFMB,\u201d TRADOC Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy A. Guden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2019\/06\/14\/mo-badges-mo-problems-expert-soldier-badge-officially-announced\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2019\/06\/14\/mo-badges-mo-problems-expert-soldier-badge-officially-announced\/\">told Army Times in a statement<\/a> when the ESB first debuted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cKeeping with the same mindset, this is a badge to award to those who truly deserve recognition as an expert in their career field,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Soldiers who participated in the tests in Germany said preparing for and competing in the tests gave them more confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMore Soldiers are becoming confident with their weapons and gear. E2B gives them the repetitions they need to perform without hesitation,\u201d Sgt. Phili Prin, an E2B grader assigned to the 421st Multifunctional Medical Battalion, said in the Army release. \u201cBy the end of test week, you see them locked in.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Expert Soldier Badge was introduced in 2019 for soldiers with MOSs outside of infantry, medical and special forces communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":88539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":70,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"10":{"categories":["land","newsletters","ausa","digital-show-dailies","daily-news-roundup"],"primary_category":"land"}}},"categories":[100,12,25,70],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3412],"class_list":["post-52091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-army"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"VNZIUWD3Y5BORCKYZLMHA3P3VQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2025\/10\/16\/soldiers-push-limits-to-compete-for-expert-badges\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Soldiers push limits to compete for expert badges - Army Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Expert Soldier Badge was introduced in 2019 for soldiers with MOSs outside of infantry, medical and special forces communities.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Soldiers push limits to compete for expert badges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Expert Soldier Badge was introduced in 2019 for soldiers with MOSs outside of infantry, medical and special forces communities.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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