Expert Action Badge? The Army is giving a badge for knowing basic skills? What is this madness!

via Army Times.

You’ve heard of the Expert Infantryman Badge and Expert Field Medical Badge, as well as the Combat Infantryman Badge and its cousin, the Combat Action Badge.

Now, the Army is toying with the idea of another expert badge, specifically for everyone who isn’t an infantryman or a combat medic.

The Expert Action Badge would test general soldier skills, Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey told Army Times, similar to how the EIB and EFMB test core infantry and combat medic proficiency outside of deployments.

"I want to build individual skills," Dailey said. "The reason why we have an EIB and EFMB is so those two fields can maintain their skills during peacetime."

Offering testing and a badge is a good way to incentivize soldiers and units to train and remain proficient, Dailey said.

Command Sgt. Maj. David Davenport, the top enlisted soldier at Training and Doctrine Command, went public with the plan on March 24. Initial reactions from soldiers and veterans were mixed, and Army Times was flooded with nearly 500 reader comments about the move.

Some were interested in the opportunity to test their skills in garrison, while others saw it as another participation badge — similar to the way they felt about the CAB — for soldiers who opted out of the risks of the infantry.

Story here.

This came out last year.  I totally missed it.  Why am I zooming back to it now?  Because I saw this on my twitter feed...

As it turns out, the much-derided Expert Action Badge unveiled by the Army in 2017 did not really describe the skills for which it would have been awarded. Now called the Expert Soldier Badge, Training and Doctrine Command is teeing up the program to go fully live this summer, the head of the Center for Initial Military Training told reporters on Friday. #strong #jhope #jimin #suga #bangtan #bts #v #navy #rapmonster #military #army #marines #soldier #airforce #usmc #coastguard #soldiers #worldwar2 #wwii #ww2 #axis #warhistory #allies #wartime #armystrong #armylife #militaryhistory

A post shared by Military Times (@militarytimes) on Feb 10, 2018 at 7:07am PST

Tell me I'm wrong but this seems like madness!  You're gonna give a badge for knowing basic skills?

What's going on Army Dawgs!!!