The Expert Infantryman Badge turns 75 years old next year, and just in time for this milestone birthday, the Army is preparing to rewrite the manual.
The infantry branch is in the midst of a pilot program, with soldiers testing out ideas to update the evaluation’s 30 tasks and the way they’re graded, led by a senior NCO at Fort Benning, Georgia.
“Their feedback was really essential to rolling out this new standard, making sure it was validated before it hit the horse,” Master Sgt. Charles Evans, from the office of the Chief of the Infantry, said in a Monday release. “Just working out all the kinks and making sure that all the tasks were applicable, realistic and up to date with the latest doctrine.”
EIB testing consists of 30 tasks carried out in three lanes: a weapons, patrol and medic lane. The basics will be the same, the release said, but there will be some reworking to the way soldiers complete indirect fire, move under fire, grenades, CPR and care under fire.
Mostly, changes will affect the options units have for conducting testing in general, in order to standardize and streamline the process, the release said.
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No timeline was provided, but Benning is hosting an EIB event in September, so " the burden rests upon this pilot program to finalize these changes quickly and push out the new manual," according to the release.
Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. She covers operations, policy, personnel, leadership and other issues affecting service members.
