Synopsis of Army Regulation 600-8-22 (Military Awards - CMB) The Combat Medical Badge was conceived March 1, 1945 by the War Department. The Combat Medical Badge (CMB) could specifically be awarded to Officers and Enlisted personnel of the Medical Department who were assigned to or attached to a medical detachment of the infantry. The CMB was to recognize medical aidmen who shared the same hazards and hardships of ground combat on a daily basis with the infantry soldier. The CMB was never intended to be awarded to all medical personnel. Due to the uniqueness of ground combat in the infantry it was intended to be awarded only to those Medics who served under direct fire with the infantry. To be awarded the Combat Medical Badge, the infantry unit to which the medical personnel were assigned or attached must have engaged the enemy in active ground combat. Medical personnel must have been personally present and under fire in order to be eligible for this award. During the Vietnam War, the requirements were so stringent that recommending officials were required to document the place (in six digit co-ordinates), the time, the type of engagement, and also the intensity of fire to which the medical personnel were exposed. The Combat Medical Badge could also be awarded to U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force medical personnel as long as they met all the requirements of Army medical personnel.
Let us not forget that there was in fact a Corpsman with the Marines as they raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi.
Hospital Corpsman John Bradley was there and was one of the three survivors from the raising to leave Iwo Jima. John Bradley died January 11, 1994 at the age of 70.
Actually, those dog tag chains were the real love beads - not the phony junk the campus leftists wore.
Greater love hath no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends.
-- the words of Jesus in the book of St. John
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Also, we have Vietnamese in our family. My husbands 1st cousin was a helicopter pilot. He married a Vietnamese woman and they have 3 children. They live down the street from us, and Thein (his wife) is the SAINT of our family. She is absolutely the hardest working, most generous, loving, sweeeeetest woman you could know. We LOVE her so much. She finally got her mother over here a few years ago, after many, many years of trying. Ba (her mother) is in her 80's and LOVES America. Isnt it great to be in your 80s and finally see freedom and see America? My children will know what Thein and Ba lived and saw in Vietnam and what we were fighting for. Bless those poor people. Bless anyone living under evil, butchering regimes. We are trying to learn a few Vietnamese words so Ba wont feel so alone at family dinners. She doesnt speak English and sits there quietly with a big grin on her face. She is just the sweetest thing.
Sorry for my tangent. Your love beads post made me think of members of our family.