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Bill calls for Army to retroactively award CAB

Tens of thousands of veterans from conflicts dating back to World War II could become eligible for the Combat Action Badge if a Florida congresswoman gets her way.

Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., recently secured language in the House version of the fiscal 2009 Defense Authorization Bill to require the Army to retroactively award the CAB to former soldiers who “participated in combat during which the person personally engaged, or was personally engaged by, the enemy at any time during the period beginning on December 7, 1941, and ending on September 18, 2001 … if the Secretary [of the Army] determines that the person has not been previously recognized in an appropriate manner for such participation.”

The version of the bill has yet to go to conference with the Senate.

The Army created the CAB in May 2005 to recognize non-infantry soldiers — eligible for a different award — who come into direct contact with the enemy. The Army has awarded 47,457 CABs to soldiers who have served in Iraq and 7,861 to soldiers for Afghanistan service.

Since World War II, only infantrymen and medics could receive branch-specific awards for combat achievements — the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Combat Medical Badge.

Army spokesman Major Nathan Banks said the service doesn’t comment on pending legislation. But Army personnel experts say that trying to review potentially hundreds of thousands of applications for retroactive CAB awards would be almost unworkable.

“It would be a horrendous undertaking from the standpoint of the administrative workload,” said Ted Stroup, a retired Army lieutenant general and former Army G1.

Brown-Waite, a lawmaker who represents more than 100,000 veterans in her district, applauds the creation of the CAB but said it doesn’t go far enough to recognize the country’s veterans.

“While the Combat Action Badge recognizes those who have served their country bravely since September 18, 2001, it overlooks the thousands of veterans who made similar sacrifices in previous wars,” Brown-Waite’s spokesman Charlie Keller wrote in a news release.

Currently, the Army requires former soldiers applying for retroactive CAB awards back to Sept. 18, 2001, to submit several documents including:

• Attachment or operational control orders.

• An officer or enlisted record brief, or DA Form 2-1.

• Chain of command endorsement.

• A brief description of the qualifying incident.

Senior staff writer Jim Tice contributed to this report.