Arctic Expert Infantrymen forged at JBER

  • Published
  • By Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Winstead
  • 4-25th ABCT Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  Sixty-two paratroopers from the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, earned the right, April 15, to pin on one of the most coveted awards a Soldier can wear.

The Expert Infantryman Badge is considered a mark of excellence, as it requires infantry Soldiers to demonstrate tactical and technical mastery of combat skills and superior physical conditioning.

The competition's attrition rate is high and many candidates make several attempts before they earn the right to wear it.

More than 600 paratroopers from 1st Battalion (Airborne), 501st Infantry Regiment; 3rd Battalion (Airborne), 509th Infantry Regiment; and 1st Squadron (Airborne), 40th Cavalry Regiment, vied for the honor, taking on a rigorous series of tests of both physical and mental endurance.

By the April 15 award ceremony, only 62 paratroopers were left to claim the badge.

Paratroopers conducted the Army Physical Fitness Test as the first requirement to advance to the next area of evaluation - land navigation in both day and night conditions.

For those who passed the requirements of land navigation, the next three days were filled with testing lanes designed to push and challenge even the most energetic and trained of paratroopers.

"There are three main lanes of testing, each with 10 testable events and an overall 20-minute time limit per lane," said Army Master Sgt. Frank Rael, operations noncommissioned officer for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4-25th ABCT.

"If a testing soldier fails more than three events per lane, they're done. If they fail six overall events, they're done. This is a very difficult test."

Moving through the urban-warfare lane of testing on the final day, Sgt. Damien Remijo, D Company, 1-501st, cleared several rooms at the Bauemeister Military Operations in Urban Terrain site as he was evaluated by graders who had already earned their EIBs, a strict requirement for the competition's evaluators.

"This was just great training, hands down," Remijo said.
 
"We did rehearsals prior to the lanes this week that I think really helped during the testing phase."

Remijo went on to successfully complete urban lane requirements after a final series of situations that called for quick judgment.

"I was tested on which grenade to use when I encountered an enemy in a building," Remijo said.

"I used the flash bang grenade instead of the fragmentation one and got a 'go' on that event."

Soldiers from the brigade played the part of enemy combatants to provide a realistic opposing force for the tests.

Editor's note: See Page A-4 for EIB photos.