Combat Medical Badge

The Combat Medical Badge is an award of the United States Army which was created in January 1945. Any member of the Army Medical Department, at the rank of colonel or below, who is assigned or attached to a ground combat arms unit of brigade or smaller size which provides medical support during any period in which the unit was engaged in ground combat is eligible for the CMB. According to the award criterion, the individual must be performing medical duties while simultaneously being engaged by the enemy; strict adherence to this requirement and its interpretation (e.g., distant mortar rounds vs. direct small arms fire) will vary by unit. As of 3 June 2005, Special Forces medics are no longer eligible for award, but may receive the Combat Infantryman Badge. A revision has allowed aviation medics to be eligible for the CMB. The non-combat proficiency equivalent is the Expert Field Medical Badge.
The Combat Medical Badge is one inch tall and one and a half inches wide.
The Combat Medical Badge is retroactive to 6 December 1941. The original decoration was considered a one-time decoration, however this directive was rescinded in 1951 allowing for multiple awards of the Combat Medical Badge denoted by stars encircling the decoration. According to the US Army Medical Department Regiment, to date there have been only two soldiers that have earned the Combat Medical Badge with two stars: Henry Jenkins and Wayne Slagel. The directive was again altered in 1969 to specify that only one award of the Combat Medical Badge is authorized for service in the Vietnam Conflict Era, which included service in Vietnam and Laos, the Dominican Republic, and South Korea (subsequent to 4 January 1969). Current regulations have expanded this qualifying period to include service in El Salvador, Grenada, Panama, Southwest Asia, and Somalia, and have added an additional qualifying period (the Global War on Terror Era) covering service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 1947, a policy was implemented that authorized the retroactive award of the Bronze Star to soldiers who had received the Combat Medical Badge during the Second World War. The basis for this regulation was that the Combat Medical Badge, like the Combat Infantryman Badge, was awarded only to soldiers who had borne combat duties befitting the Bronze Star Medal, and also that both the badge and medal required a recommendation by the unit commander and a citation in orders.
The CMB is authorized for award for the following qualifying periods:
World War II Era
Korean War Era
Vietnam War Era
Global War on Terror Era
As of 2005 the rules for eligibility were changed to allow any medical department soldier in a brigade or lower unit to be eligible so long as they are engaged in actual ground combat and performed medical duties. This now includes Soldiers assigned to aviation units. Additionally, in 2008, IED/VBIEDs can now be considered direct contact with the enemy.
As of June 2011, the badge and its sew-on equivalent may be worn on the Army Combat Uniform (ACU).
In mid-2025 "master combat badges" were introduced, specifically the Master Combat Infantryman Badge (MCIB), Master Combat Medical Badge (MCMB), and Master Combat Action Badge (MCAB). The badges represent those who have earned both a combat badge (Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB), Combat Medical Badge (CMB), or CAB) and an expert badge (Expert Infantryman Badge (EIB), Expert Field Medical Badge (EFMB), or Expert Soldier Badge (ESB)). The "master badges" appear identical to their respective combat badges, replacing the silver wreaths on the full-color metal badges with gold wreaths; subdued pin-on badges and sew-on badges would see their black wreaths also replaced with gold. Soldiers that had earned a combat badge but a "separate" expert badge (a CIB and an EFMB, for example) would wear the master badge aligning with their combat badge (in the case of a CIB and an EFMB, the awardee would wear the Master Combat Infantryman Badge). In March 2025, the Army confirmed the new "master combat" badges would be available via Army & Air Force Exchange Service by 21 March 2025.