TYR Tactical

US Army Establishes Master Gunner Identification Badge

Earlier this month, the Honorable Raymond T Oroho, acting Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, signed a memorandum establishing the Master Gunner Identification Badge. It is intended to be worn on the ASU as well as ACU.

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Although there are Master Gunners at all Divisions, the badge is limited to graduates of these seven courses:
-Field Artillery Master Gunner Course
-Master Gunnery-M1/M1A1 Tank Course
-Infantry Fighting Vehicle Master Gunner Course
-Avenger Master Gunner Course
-M1A2 SEP Master Gunner Course
-Stryker Master Gunner Course
-Patriot Master Gunner Course

Enlisted soldiers must have been awarded Additional Skill Identifier A7, A8, J3, K7, K8, R8 or T4. Warrant officers require ASI H8. The Master Gunner Badge must be awarded by the authority who hosts the qualification course.

Retirees and Veterans may also apply for retroactive award. Click here for full details.

Word on the street is that Army will be establishing even more badges this year.

39 Responses to “US Army Establishes Master Gunner Identification Badge”

  1. Ray Forest says:

    Still minimizing the Light and ABN Inf Master Gunners I see. One day small arms mastery will get its due recognition.

    • blue says:

      thinking the same thing,

    • Bulldog76 says:

      Don’t you know small arms mastery isn’t important /heavy sarcasm

    • CAVstrong says:

      MMTC is an attempt to correct this.

    • some other joe says:

      When Ft Benning develops a schoolhouse program and units commit to sending NCOs to it….

    • Harv says:

      I see a rifle on the patch, I don’t see anything tank related.

      • Mike Gold says:

        The rocket looking thingy in the middle (vertical) is a sabot penetrator from a tank round.

    • adam g says:

      Obviously all you sad sorry non Bradley/tank master gunners have no ide as to what we actual master gunners can do and are required to do. I bet you all feel like digital master gunners should be included as well….SMH

      • marshall w says:

        Did it take you over three months of institutional learning to become a small arms master gunner? No.

  2. Jose Rosales says:

    What about the small arms master gunner for light fighters? Are they going to be included for this badge also?

  3. Hodge175 says:

    EIB and CIB award please… for those that have both. Very proud
    That as a young PFC in 1/75 I earned my EIB. Be nice to show I have both.

    • J. Thornhill says:

      You sound like the kind of troop to work “I have a CIB and an EIB” into every conversation, so you probably don’t need a special snowflake badge.

      • Hodge175 says:

        Way to assume you know what kind of soldier I am, actually I stated that because getting my EIB was alot harder than some of the blanket award CIB’s I have seen issued over 20yrs troop.

      • Rlb0311 says:

        Hodge175 is probably one of the most humble men I know. Not only does he have a EIB, he has a star on his CIB, and a scroll on his right sleeve. He was pretty clear stating that for soldiers that have earned both a CIB/EIB, it would be nice to recognize that achievement.

        • John says:

          Eib was made for the infantry remfs during wwii so they wouldn’t feel left out.

          • Franco says:

            Aren’t all these badges made so soldiers won’t feel left out? Berets and badges for everyone! It’s the generation of ‘everyone gets a trophy’.

    • Buckaroomedic says:

      Concur, would like to see the same for those who earned both the EFMB and CMB.

      • hodge175 says:

        Watching Doc Donovan putting our medics through the EFMB train up was no joke. Those guys who made it, truly earned it. I would agree you you on this as well. Just make a simple Gold Wreath.

  4. Jason says:

    Why? Who keeps coming up with all these badges?

  5. John says:

    Sniper tab or badge. B4 asi disappears when you get medically reclassed.

  6. AGI says:

    Just what the Army needs – another garish badge to clutter up the uniform. How about just using the existing marksmanship badge with a Master Gunner bar, or issuing it in gold for Master Gunners (of ALL types – heavy, light, etc.)??

  7. CAVstrong says:

    SSD any hint of the new badges the Army is considering/
    I’m guess the EAB, the Dual Infantry Badge(??), and perhaps something for Jungle or Mountain Warfare?

    • CAVstrong says:

      Also has they deauthorized the Sapper Tab?
      According to this https://www.army.mil/uniforms/?from=hp_spotlight
      when you scroll down to the ASU the only Special Skill Tabs listed are Ranger and Special Forces….

    • jon says:

      Wasn’t there at one point a Jungle Expert patch? *my instructor in highschool was a jungle instructor in panama and had the patch on his desk. I was under the impression it was once worn on the old OD and early BDUs…but maybe that was only for Jungle instructors AT the schoolhouse. And I think mountain warfare has an approved badge for the Vermont National Guard (Rams Head)- I wonder if that would just carry over instead of a new badge.

      • Iheartptbelts says:

        Yes, back when the jungle warfare school was in Panama.

      • Chris B. says:

        I went through JOTC in Panama in April of 96′, I can’t remember what the instructors had as far as authorized wear items, but as students we didn’t get anything unless you bought a tshirt.

    • tcba_joe says:

      I earned my Rams Heads at the Mountain Warfare School back in 2012 and my Brigade is the only authorized wearers of it.

      I’ve been hearing rumors for years it would be authorized Army wide, but so far still no dice.

  8. pbr549 says:

    I’ve heard that the Bradley and Abrams MG schools were pretty hard.

    • Iheartptbelts says:

      The guys Ive met that had been through Bradley master gunner really knew their shit. I think the idea posted earlier of having a gold marksmanship badge or master gunner tab for the marksmanship badge would be the best option.

  9. Dennis Munden says:

    I am still waiting for a Combat Artillery Badge. In 1966 I served as an FO with a rifle company, A/1/14/25th Infantry, in Vietnam and was awarded a Silver Star. I was with the infantry in the field for 3 months. I don’t want a CIB, I want a CAB. I appreciate the Silver Star, but I would cherish a Combat Artillery Badge. My entire FO party earned one. I received the SS, but my RTO who never left my side received anything. I was not award conscious and my SS caught up with me about a year later. I never thought abut putting my team in for any awards. It just wasn’t something I personally cared about. I have regretted for many years not recognizing their courage. I am alive because my RTO protected me as well as carrying our radio.

  10. Kirk says:

    Screw the bling… Where’s the substance of the small arms Master Gunner program? What does it cover, who’s going to go, and what actual input are they gonna get, institutionally, into unit training?

    Personally, I’ve always felt that the Army really needed an institutional position in all units that should probably be a Warrant Officer slot, whose sole focus would be on training individual and unit skills. God knows, the commissioned side of the house isn’t getting the experience or necessary background to be really proficient at either planning or conducting training, so maybe we ought to just recognize that fact, and create some official Training Officer slots.

    I started out back in the days of BTMS, before the big change over to the current sets of training manuals. I hate to say it, folks, but the fact is, we used to be a lot better at this “training” thing than we are now. Much of the problems came in during the late ’80s, early ’90s, and stem, in my opinion, from the way we tried to micro-manage training with the computers that were starting to come on-line in that era. I remember training schedules run off on mimeograph machines, and lived through the transition from that time to the present, and I’m here to tell you, I didn’t run into company commanders who couldn’t “do” good, quality training until the late 1990s, when we’d finally killed the whole “make the junior officers plan, conduct, and assess training” from ground zero.

    The whole “Sergeant’s Time” fiasco is just symptomatic of the whole issue. Most units now implement Sergeant’s Time as the sole training focus of any given week, but if you back up and look at the doctrinal mandate, who the hell is supposed to be responsible for collective training, again? Yeah, that’s right; the officers. Individual skills are supposed to be the responsibility and focus for the NCOs, not collective skills. But, most units have put collective METL tasks into the Sergeant’s Time slot, and call that their entire training plan–Which cuts young officers out of responsibility for much of the training.

    Sergeant’s Time Training started out, back in the days of yore, as a response to the NCOs going up the chain and complaining that there wasn’t enough time or even emphasis on training individual skills to the troops. When it started out, it was supposed to be an afternoon or morning affair, every week, where you got to do CTT or SQT training, without having any distractions from the collective tasks. Within only a few years, that whole thing shifted, and became simultaneously the ONLY damn training we were doing, and it became a collective task training “thing”, not individual skills.

    The Army’s entire approach to training needs a drastic re-imagining, and a hell of a lot of work.