SOLDIER VIES FOR EXPERT FIELD MEDICAL BADGE

SOLDIER VIES FOR EXPERT FIELD MEDICAL BADGE

Reported By RET B.Lambert May 28, 2021

1st Lt. Molly French, a Nurse Case Manager with the Fort Stewart Soldier Recovery Unit, renders care on a Tactical Combat Casualty Care testing lane May 19 on Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. French is 1 of 24 remaining candidates from the original 39 that began the event to earn the coveted Expert Field Medical Badge.

The Department of the Army approved the Expert Field Medical Badge (EFMB), a special skill award for recognition of exceptional competence and outstanding performance by field medical personnel, on 18 June 1965.

Personnel eligible to earn the EFMB include all officers assigned or detailed to an Army Medical Department (AMEDD) Corps, Army officers in training at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Army officers enrolled in the Health Professions Scholarship Program, Warrant Officers who have an AMEDD primary military occupational specialty (MOS) controlled by the Surgeon General, Warrant Officer pilots that have a special qualification identifier "D" (Aeromedical Evacuation Pilot) and are assigned to an air ambulance unit, and Enlisted personnel who have an MOS in the 68- Career Management Field (CMF) as well as an AMEDD primary MOS, MOS18D, or 38BW4.

Today, the EFMB test is the utmost challenge to the professional competence and physical endurance of the Soldier medic. It is the most sought after peacetime award in the AMEDD, and while the Combat Medical Badge is the "portrait of courage" in wartime, the Expert Field Medical Badge is undoubtedly the "portrait of excellence" in the Army all of the time.