The Army is set to begin awarding Master Combat Badges, which will combine expert and traditional combat badges, next spring, according to an internal service memo reviewed by Military.com.
For decades, troops have been limited to wearing only one badge at a time, with most opting for the combat badge to showcase their wartime bona fides. The new Master Combat Badge will blend the Combat Infantryman Badge, Combat Medical Badge or Combat Action Badge with their expert counterparts.
Service planners expect the badges to be available forcewide in April, the memo says. The new badges will share much of the same design as their combat counterparts but will have a gold wreath -- both for the dress and, more strikingly, the camouflage uniform -- marking a significant departure from all-black badges.
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The plan comes after Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Weimer initially announced the badges in October as part of a slew of uniform-related announcements, including new physical training uniforms -- which he later walked back.
The news also comes as combat badges are slowly becoming more rare among the rank and file. The scarcity of the once commonplace accolades is a sign that combat abroad has largely died down after two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I did look to the Panama guys," Weimer said at the Association of the United States Army conference in October, reflecting on his early career in special operations. "I did look to the Grenada guys, and we even still had a few Vietnam guys in my formation at that point in time. Whoever had a mustard stain on their jump wings, who had a Ranger scroll on their right shoulder, who had a CIB, it was motivating."
Soldiers with mix-and-match badge types, such as a Combat Infantryman Badge and an Expert Medical Badge, will wear the master badge aligned with the combat badge. Service planners intend to incorporate that into Army regulations, according to the memo.
The Combat Infantryman Badge dates back to World War II and was introduced to elevate the infantry's prestige. It also came with a $10 monthly bonus -- roughly $185 today -- until the incentive was discontinued in 1948.
In 1945, the Combat Medical Badge was established to recognize medics who provide care under fire.
The Expert Infantryman Badge was also introduced in the same time period as an accolade awarded for demonstrating a high level of proficiency in marksmanship, physical fitness and other combat tasks. In effect, the combat and expert infantryman badges were meant for infantrymen to stand apart from the rest of the Army.
The Expert Medical Badge was created in 1965.
In 2005, the Combat Action Badge was introduced, effectively the same award as its infantry counterpart, but for soldiers in all other occupations, spurred after cavalry and tank units played a key role in the invasion of Iraq and saw significant casualties.
Expert badges have been a greater priority across units in recent years, particularly after the introduction of the Expert Soldier Badge in 2019, which opened up that prestigious type of badge to troops from all occupations. The test to earn it is the same as for the decades-old Expert Infantryman Badge, but allows soldiers outside of the infantry or medical field to receive a badge.
The service doubled the number of promotion points those expert badges are worth in 2022, signaling the priority for unit commanders to have their soldiers test for them.
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