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NEWS CIB vs. CAR - The Fascinating Minutiae

I could understand taking out a can of New Coke with a 7.62 round. Some of us remember it from the first time around.

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Hotdogs said:
CIB = CAR. If you’re not in an infantry unit you get another special badge in the Army with essentially similar requirements....The CIB is highly respected but it’s not anything that makes people look twice in the Army. It’s all over the place. Airborne wings with combat jump devices are highly respected over the CIB.
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Having been stuck with a bunch of Army guys for a year, mostly combat arms types, along with serving with many others over my career among many other interesting tidbits we talked about was some recent history of combat award criteria going back to Desert Storm. As with the CAR the criteria for the CIB has varied a bit as to how much 'combat' a soldier, or in most cases his unit, has to see in order to rate one. For most of the time the criteria was basically similar to a CAB, if you were shot at and an infantryman attached to an infantry unit you rated a CIB. Most infantrymen in Iraq and Afghanistan have been involved in a little bit more than a firefight or two and will rightfully take umbrage to any suggestion that their CIB=CAB, but a firefight or two is literally what some infantry units in Desert Storm experienced and they still got CIB's.

So as with many things, it depends.

RobLyman said:
While on a small FOB in Iraq, no one was awarded a CAB for IDF, despite the burn holes in the netting around our CHUs from shrapnel. Our medics were not awarded CMBs when the aircraft was shot at during missions, but did receive CABs. The CAB criteria was pretty stringent, with a requirement that ground fire at an aircraft had to pass within a certain distance. There had to be proof that the direct fire was directed at YOU!
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Around the same time frame as when you were there I know a few CAB's that were handed out because the folks were simply close to some IDF impacts, they actually had a distance cutoff, much to the derision of some of the more salty Army folks who had earned them the 'hard way'. Several of the more experienced Army guys said that a persistent issue with CAB's was the inconsistency in the award criteria up to that time. As already mentioned the criteria for by that time for CAR's was very strict for land-based combat action. On the other hand I know of a VAQ squadron that got CAR's a few years earlier primarily because of IDF.
 
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