Soldiers mixed on more expensive pin-on CSIB - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Soldiers mixed on more expensive pin-on CSIB

The Army’s new Combat Service Identification Badge is now available in stores and on Web sites for soldiers to buy and display on the new Army Service Uniform.

The CSIB — a pin-on metal badge showing the insignia of major combat units — is for sale alongside the coveted sew-on combat patch it will replace over the next six years.

They cost between $11 and $16 and so far are approved for more than 75 active, National Guard and Reserve units. Depending on availability, soldiers can buy them at Army and Air Force Exchange Service clothing stores as well as commercial military clothing stores and Web sites.

The Army’s Institute of Heraldry began designing the new badges last year to give soldiers the option of displaying their combat service on the ASU, a revised version of the classic, dress blue uniform. Senior Army leaders in 2006 chose the ASU to replace the green Class As and Bs.

About 98 percent of soldiers surveyed by the Army expressed a desire to display combat credentials on the uniform, since the combat patch is not authorized for wear on the current dress blues, Army officials maintain.

As with the new uniform, the CSIB is receiving mixed reviews among soldiers.

Lt. Col. Todd Ressel doesn’t understand why the combat patch, formally known as the shoulder sleeve insignia-former wartime service, needed to be replaced.

“Why not a patch?” Ressel wrote in a letter to Army Times. “The dress blue uniform is not some holy garment that cannot be changed. Patches could have been placed on it.”

Unlike a sew-on patch, which was worn on the upper sleeve of the green Class A coat, this badge will be worn in the center of the right breast pocket of the Class A coat for men, and women will wear it on the coat’s waistline. The badge can also be worn on the Class B shirts in the same locations.

Sgt. Robert Clark, however, thinks the CSIB makes a lot of sense.

“I like the badges compared to the patch because you can always switch badges if you earned multiple CSIBs, and you don’t have the hassle of sewing on the patch to your ASU,” Clark wrote in a letter to Army Times.

First Lt. Joel McMichael said he prefers the less expensive combat patch to “another piece of metal I have to pin on my uniform, especially if it’s going to cost $11 to $16 per badge.”

Patches generally cost $2 to $5 and about $1.50 to have one sewn on the uniform.

Army uniform policy officials would not estimate when the CSIB effort will be complete.

“The CSIBs will continue to be developed until all the [shoulder sleeve insignia] have been converted to CSIBs,” said Hank Minetrez, spokesman for Army G1. CSIBs will be developed for active, National Guard and Reserve units, he said.

The batch of approved CSIBs includes all 10 active Army combat divisions. The list also includes several National Guard and Reserve units, as well as CSIBs for some corps and brigade-level units.

Currently no Special Operations Command CSIBs are available, according to the Institute of Heraldry’s Web site. Units such as the 75th Ranger Regiment are slated to be developed some time in fiscal 2010.

The CSIB ranks fifth after badges for presidential, vice presidential, secretary of defense and joint staff badges and would be placed to the left of those for soldiers who have them. All other badges can be worn in accordance with existing Army regulations.

The CSIB can now be worn on the current dress blue uniform until October 2015 when the ASU replaces the green Class As and Bs and the more rarely seen white service uniform. The ASU will continue to serve as dress blues for formal events. The policies that governed wear of the dress blues will continue as before.

Many of the wear policies governing the green uniform have been integrated with the blue uniform to preserve past traditions, uniform officials say.

Soldiers who wear green, tan or maroon berets, soldiers assigned to air assault-coded positions and military police on duty will be permitted to blouse their trousers with black leather combat boots.

Officers and enlisted soldiers may wear overseas service bars on the blue uniform coat. They had been allowed to wear the bars only on their green service uniform coats.

Enlisted service stripes, each indicating three years’ service, will still be worn on the left sleeve, but will now be the smaller size previously worn on the green uniform. Soldiers who own the current blue uniform will not be required to remove the large stripes until 2015.

The new uniform’s basic elements — coat, shirt, trousers for men, slacks and skirt for women — will cost between $170 to $178, Army officials maintain.

But at the clothing sales store on Fort Myer, Va., the ASU costs $319 — $192 for the coat, $97 for the pants and $30 for the shirt.

Enlisted soldiers should receive a stipend in their annual clothing replacement allowance to put toward the purchase of the ASU, Army officials say. The current clothing replacement allowance for male soldiers is $1,426.11 and $1,702.14 for female soldiers.

The blue uniform has always been required for commissioned officers; they get a one-time stipend to buy it.

The ASU is a 55-percent wool, 45-percent polyester blend, and it is heavier and more wrinkle resistant than previous uniforms. The coat will have a more tailored cut for a more fit appearance.

Black, tan, maroon and green berets will be permitted with all uniforms. Men and women, corporal and above, may wear a service cap, for which there will be a stipend. Commanders will determine which headgear should be worn for a particular event.

The machine-washable white shirt is more tailored and heavier than the green shirt and is wrinkle resistant. It has epaulets for rank insignia and permanent military creases.

Enlisted soldiers who opted to purchase the blues had to buy commercially available white shirts to go with them; women were authorized to wear short sleeves and men had to wear long sleeves. With the new Army Service Uniform, enlisted soldiers, male and female, will be authorized for the updated white shirt in the long- and short-sleeve versions and all will wear long sleeves with the Class A’s, and long or short sleeves with the Class B’s.

During the development of the uniform under former Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker, a gray shirt had been chosen and modeled at several Army events. The white shirt that will now be part of the Army Service Uniform surfaced after Schoomaker’s successor, Gen. George Casey, took over in April 2007.

Junior enlisted soldiers in the rank of specialist and below will not wear the gold braid stripe on the outside seam, unless they are assigned to the Old Guard. Soldiers in those lower ranks who now own blue trousers with the stripe will not be required to remove it until 2015.

Soldiers graduating from basic training will begin getting the ASU as part of their clothing bag by late summer 2010.