Hot on the heels of the ALARACT announcing the new Army Mountaineering badge, the design has leaked via LinkedIn and it features a Ram’s Head.
Here are a couple of points:
– Guidelines should be ‘official’ in 60 days, per the message.
– 120 days or so until they’re available for purchase.
– This should cover any Echo Qualified Soldier.
Geez, I can’t believe I’m finally the old guy who would just prefer the limited badges and tabs we had going into the GWOT.
OK, gotta say it clearly looks like a rams head, and not like some SciFi movie alien like the current device
lol
Well the last one was called the “Princess Leia Bage”…
Makes me think of Steppenwolf character from “Justice League” movie
Back in December when they showed three possible designs for this badge I thought they were awful. I posted:
“if you really need to change the badge, put the the rams head in full side profile. The ram to use should be the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep which is native to Colorado. Camp Hale Colorado is where the 10th Mountain received its mountain training. You could also incorporate the two skis shown in design # 2. That would satisfy the current Ram haters but still pay homage to the history of U.S. Army military mountaineering.”
It’s not exactly what I suggested, but its close. Needless to say I think they got this right. Looks pretty good.
Yup, pleasantly surprised
So is there clarity on the qualification requirements for this badge? Is it just BMMC or is it BMMC and AMMC? Also is this a permanent award or do you have to be assigned to an E Billet to be able to wear it?
The Army has not done an adequate job of defining award criteria.
That’s what I was thinking. Although, looking in ATTRs it seems like BMMC awards the E SQI, so I would assume that anyone who completes that course would be qualified to wear it.
If I remember correctly, the E SQI came out in 2009. At that time the criteria was just BMMC for those attending after 2009, but if you attended before 2009 you needed to have attended both the two week summer and the two week winter phase courses. That made zero sense to me. The summer and winter phase courses are now advanced courses after you complete BMMC. Why would you need a month worth of courses for the E SQI if you attended prior to 2009, but just a two week course if you attended after 2009. Way back in the day you got the rams head after attending the winter and summer phases but why wouldn’t you just grandfather in anyone who attended either phase. I bet he majority of what is taught at the current BMMC is about the same as either the older winter or summer phase courses.