The “storming the Norman castle” edition.
The “storming the Norman castle” edition.
WASHINGTON — Eleven top-performing Soldiers from around the Army came together Tuesday to receive the Army’s first-ever Expert Soldier Badges.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville made the presentation during the Eisenhower Luncheon at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition.
“I’m really proud of what these Soldiers have accomplished,” Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael A. Grinston said. “At the time, the [ESB] was a new challenge not only for them but for the Army. These 11 individuals can now proudly wear a badge that firmly recognizes them as experts in their profession, something all Soldiers should strive to be.”
Announced on the Army’s 244th birthday in June, the ESB is a proficiency badge designed to recognize a Soldier’s lethality outside of the infantry, by measuring their “mastery of physical fitness, marksmanship, and other critical Soldering skills necessary for combat readiness,” said Sgt. 1st Class Dennis Moore, the badge’s noncommissioned officer in charge at the Army Center for Initial Military Training.
“[The ESB] recognizes the next generation of competent, committed leaders who thrive in chaos, adapt, and win in a complex world,” said Master Sgt. Norbert Neumeyer, a U.S. Forces Command master gunner who oversaw the first ESB test.
In April 2017, 56 Soldiers were selected from FORSCOM units across the Army during the pilot phase of testing. Of those who tested, 12 passed, making the pass-fail rate on par with the Expert Infantryman Badge and Expert Field Medical Badge.
Spc. Mahrubius Ledford, released from active duty March 2019 , was unable to attend Tuesday’s ceremony.
For Staff Sgt. Tyler Lewis, a field artillery firefinder radar operator out of Fort Bliss, Texas, earning the ESB “represents all aspects of being a Soldier,” he said.
“Being a Soldier means being a tactical and technical expert from the level of basic Soldiering skills to the advanced levels of your [military occupational specialty],” he said. “A Soldier learns to be adaptable, disciplined, and master and steward of his or her profession in every situation.”
SHARPEN YOUR SOLDIERING SKILLS
For Sgt. Michael Ostrander, armament shop noncommissioned officer at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, he said he had to touch up his land navigation skills in order to earn his ESB.
The small arms repairmen said he relied on the Soldering skills he learned during basic combat training and throughout his military career during the test. He also suggested Soldiers planning to test for the badge “brush up on things they’re rusty on.”
For many Soldiers, the ESB tasks may seem like “common ones that have been taught before,” Lewis said. But, “[Soldiers] need to ensure that their knowledge is accurate to each standard tested. Practicing each skill until it becomes second nature is the key to success.”
Staff Sgt. Mike Mata, joint fire support specialist at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, echoed his fellow recipients when he credited “hands-on training and mock repetitions” to earning the ESB.
“It’s important to remember that testing is intended to be rigorous, mission-focused, and conducted under realistic conditions,” Neumeyer said.
The new skill badge is an equivalent of the EIB and the EFMB. It’s nearly a spitting image of the Combat Action Badge, minus the wreath. The badge displays the same M9 bayonet knife and M67 frag grenade inlaid against a solid, gray rectangular bar.
The test includes various commander-selected tasks essential to their respective units, like how to respond to an improvised explosive device attack, forging fighting positions, finding Soldiers in a tactical environment, and how to mark chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear-contaminated areas. Other tasks include a day and night land navigation test, a 12-mile ruck march, and a series of individual assessments.
The test also contains a variety of events, sharing roughly 80% of the tasks in the EIB and EFMB, and takes five days for Soldiers to complete. Standards for the test will not be adjusted based on age, gender, or any other criteria.
“The [ESB] will increase overall readiness and lethality, and the first recipients are among the top-qualified Soldiers in the Army,” Moore said.
To qualify, Soldiers must first pass the new Army Combat Fitness Test, slated to be the official fitness test for the Army by October 2020. Soldiers must also qualify as expert on the M16 or M4 and be recommended by their chain of command.
“The ESB gives units a baseline and ability to measure their Soldiers’ physical fitness,” Neumeyer said. “It also ensures Soldiers perform to standard all the critical tasks they’re supposed to have knowledge of, and measures their abilities to an expert level.”
Grinston said today’s awards are only the beginning for the Expert Soldier Badge, adding it will increase readiness and Soldier lethality across the force.
“We have ESB testing that will be underway later this month at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and next month at Fort Eustis,” Grinston said. “I look forward to seeing the results. This is a truly challenging badge to earn with training along the way that will help better prepare our Soldiers for combat.”
The first-ever recipients of the ESB include:
Staff Sgt. Joseph Alcorn, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington
Staff Sgt. Freeman Harris, U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart, Germany
Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Harvey, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington
Staff Sgt. Thomas Jacobsen, U.S. Army Recruiting Office, Gretna, Louisiana
Staff Sgt. Tyler Lewis, Fort Bliss, Texas
Staff Sgt. Anthony Lodiong, Fort Bliss, Texas
Staff Sgt. Julio Macias, Fort Campbell, Kentucky
Staff Sgt. Mike Mata, Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Staff Sgt. Evan Neilson, Fort Jackson, South Carolina
Sgt. Michael Ostrander, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington
Staff Sgt. Bradley Sherman, Fort Benning, Georgia
Spc. Mahrubius Ledford, released from active duty March 2019
By Thomas Brading, Army News Service
WASHINGTON, D.C. — To earn any coveted badge in the U.S. Army, be it the Expert Infantryman’s Badge (EIB) or Expert Field Medic Badge (EFMB), is to be among America’s most proficient Soldiers.
Sgt. Michael Ostrander, a small arms and towed artillery repairer assigned to 1st Special Forces Group, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and native of Casnovia, Michigan, is one of the first Soldiers in the Army to earn the new Expert Soldier Badge (ESB).
“To hear that the ESB was actually going to be a thing, I was surprised,” Ostrander said. “Knowing I was one of the first Soldiers to earn it, I was excited to be a part of a great thing and honored to bring this great organization the credit it deserves,” he added.
Ostrander is one of the first 11 Soldiers to be awarded the ESB during the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) annual meeting, October 15, 2019, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.
The standards set to earn the Army’s new Expert Soldier Badge (ESB) are as challenging as the requirements to earn an EIB or EFMB.
Command Sgt. Maj. Edward W. Mitchell, senior enlisted leader at the Center for Initial Military Training, says like the EIB and EFMB, testing for the ESB consists of an Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT), day and night land navigation, weapons, medical and more than 30 other individual tasks.
“We wanted every Soldier to make sure they understand that they are experts in their field,” Mitchell said. “Achieving the new badge … requires a much higher standard, just like its cousins, which are the EIB and the EFMB” Mitchell added.
Prior to the start of testing, participants underwent a week of intense training to prepare for the challenges they would face during the ESB qualification.
“There was a week of training before the week testing and it was pretty intense and there was also a big book of study material to go along with it,” Ostrander noted. “I learned a lot of medical stuff that I didn’t know before,” he added.
As with any competition, participants have one or more favorite parts.
“My favorite part of this was learning and solidifying the basic Soldier skills that I have forgotten or just never learned,” Ostrander said. “I learned that I’m a lot more capable than I thought.”
Since the ESB can be earned by any Soldier outside of the infantry, medical and special operations career fields, Ostrander suggests that Soldiers “brush up on things they’re rusty on” to be successful during testing.
-USASOC-
By SGT Larry Barnhill, USASOC Public Affairs
What a great way to take us into the weekend; pheasant season! Thanks Nick!
The Tubes Cummerbund Conversion Kit brings quick donn and doff capabilities, elimination of noise and wear from Velcro® panels, and consistent cummerbund placement to the AVS™ and original JPC™ plate carriers.
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Meprolight USA will exhibit at the 2019 NASGW Expo, Oct. 22 -25, 2019 in Orlando, Florida. On display will be their line of red-dot, thermal and self-illuminated sights for the civilian and professional market.
Middletown, Penn. (October 2019) –Meprolight®, a world leader in a variety of optic solutions from electro-optics sights, thermal sights and devices, self-illuminated sights, and innovative pistol sights, will be exhibiting at the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers (NASGW) Expo on Oct. 22 – 25, 2019 in Orlando, Florida, at booth #523.
Meprolight, a renowned supplier for militaries and law enforcement agencies around the globe, opened the US division early 2019 to facilitate a closer relationship with US distributors and retailers with a goal of reaching the US commercial market. Meprolight’s products offer the American consumer some of the latest innovations in electro-optic sight systems for handguns and long guns that are ready to take on any challenge, whether for target shooting, hunting or home defense.
All of Meprolight’s products offer energy-efficiency, large window displays, compact housing systems, easy-to-use controls, multiple reticle options, quick detach mechanisms and superior clarity and performance in any environmental condition.
Meprolight revolutionized the weapon sight industry with the MEPRO FORESIGHT, a first-of-its-kind augmented weapon sight capable of projecting essential tactical data right on the transparent optical lens in real-time. Utilizing Bluetooth interface to connect with the FORESIGHT’s mobile app for Android or iPhone, the user can store up to 10 zeroing firearms profiles or user profiles, so the sight can be removed and replaced without ever having to re-zero. It also has access to a large database of reticles for tactical scenarios and to receive firmware updates and new features, as they are released to market.
Additionally, Meprolight will have the MEPRO RDS PRO V.2 on hand, as well as the MEPRO MicroRDS. Both electro-optical red-dot sights are the latest generation with the RDS PRO V.2 featuring an optimized combination, more brightness positions (16 brightness levels compare to four brightness levels in its predecessor), and supports both red and green aiming patterns and multiple selections of aiming patterns all through a large crystal clear, transparent display window.
The MicroRDS is a small, rugged, energy efficient, electro-optical red dot sight designed for handguns, shotguns, and rifles with a large display window and a clearly defined red-dot for fast target acquisition with both eyes open. The MicroRDS Kit includes a patent-pending dovetail adapter with a quick detach mechanism that allows mounting and dismounting the MicroRDS on the gun with a click of a finger. The adapter includes high-quality Meprolight Night Sights that allow accurate and fast shooting under any lighting conditions when the MicroRDS Optic is removed.
Meprolight’s self-illuminated sight offerings include the FT Bullseye, similar to an optical sight, but in a small, low profile with an aim point in the form of an illuminated dot and circle bullseye.
The MEPRO MX3 T, the new magnifying scope with an integrated side flip adaptor and 3X magnification is designed for the distance shooter. Also, new is the MEPRO FT Single Dot and FT Two Dot, fiber-tritium optimized for day and night brightness on a super compact, low-profile platform.
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The National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers (NASGW) was founded in 1953 to bring together shooting sports buyers and sellers through their membership and annual expo event. The NASGW provides education, marketing, and communication opportunities for its hunting and shooting sports wholesalers, manufacturers, and sales professional members.
Stay current with Meprolight USA at www.meprolight.com.
Capewell Aerial Systems is proud to announce that we are among 11 small businesses qualified by the US Air Force for a multiple award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract in the potential amount of $950,000,000 over the next ten years. Component contracts will be awarded and administered through the Air Force’s Life Cycle Management Center’s Try-Decide-Buy (TDB) program.
The TDB program seeks to rapidly field and deploy Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) items including, but not limited to: Uniforms, Cold Weather Clothing Systems, Visual Augmentation Equipment, Personal Protective Equipment, Helmets, Body Armor, Tactical Carriers, Individual & Survival Equipment, Lighting, Air Crew Support Equipment, Communication & Electronics Test Equipment, Tactical Equipment, Load Bearing Equipment, Lethality Support Items, Boots, Gloves, Eye Protection, Egress Equipment, Aerial Insertion Equipment, Search & Rescue Equipment, Personnel Recovery Equipment, Medical Equipment, Bladder Relief Equipment, Power Management, Hydration, Ancillary Services and Testing as applicable.
Capewell’s product line and manufacturing capabilities dovetail nicely with these categories and we’re excited about the opportunity to partner with the Air Force to develop and supply gear in support of the Try-Decide-Buy program.
Longtime Brand Development Manager, Joshua Minton will direct Capewell’s participation in the TDB program.